)S americai 

OUNG READERS 



;,.NJA,M1N FRANKLIN 

CLARE TREE MAJOR 




Class X._.Zi£i 

Book.,rs M a 



GwrightN", 



CfifiXRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE>STOEYOF 

BENJAMIN F^j^SKLIN 



FAMOUS AMERICANS 
FOR YOUNG READERS 

Titles Ready 

GEORGE WASHINGTON By Joseph Walker 

^JOHN PAUL JONES By C. C. Eraser 

THOMAS JEFFERSON By Gene Stone 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN By J. Walker McSpadden 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN By Clare Tree Major 

DAVID CROCKETT By Jane Corby * 

ROBERT FULTON By L N. McFee 

THOMAS A. EDISON By L N. McFee 

HARRIET B. STOWE By R. B. MacArthur 

MARY LYON By H. O. Stengel 

Other Titles in Preparation 



\fJtJLJLJt/ 






FAMOU5 AME^ANS 

FoR^Yoxwo Readei^ 

THE^STOEYOF 

BENJAMir^ F^^SKLIN 

CLAKB TBBE MAJOR 




■91 



BAESB <a. HOPKINS 

NEVJARK 
I*J. 



NY 



A*r • • • •X 



6 



Copyright, 1922 
BY BARSE & HOPKINS 



EBINTED IN" THE U. 8. A. 

AUG ~2 1322 

©CUH77732 



or 



PREFACE 

There is an irresistible appeal to both young 
and old in the figure of Benjamin Franklin. 
Whether we view him as the printer's appren- 
tice in Boston, shpping his own contributions 
under the door sill, so that his brother might 
be fooled into pubhshing them; or the run- 
away lad reaching Philadelphia by hook or 
crook, and walking down the main street eat- 
ing a roll of bread, with another tucked under 
each arm, while his future wife laughed at 
him from a neighboring doorway; or the man 
of affairs busied with many things for the ad- 
vancement of his adopted town ; or the simply- 
dressed American standing unabashed before 
Lords and crowned heads, not afraid to tell 
them the truth ; or as one of the drafters of the 
Declaration of Independence; or as an ama- 
teur scientist dabbling with electricity — in 
these and many another situations he seems 
like a personal friend. His face and form 
have not been obscured by the cobwebs of 
history. 

This is partly due to his famous "Autobiog- 
raphy," one of the classic stories of endeavor 
and achievement. We hope that every boy 
and girl, who has not already done so, will 



PREFACE 

read that delightful narrative. We have 
drawn upon it freely for many of the facts of 
the present story; but as it was unfortunately 
left unfinished, we have completed the account 
from other standard works — ^to all of which 
we wish to give due acknowledgment. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Printer's Apprentice ... 9 

II. A Runaway Boy 17 

III. Franklin Opens His Own Shop . . 27 

IV. A First Taste of Public Affairs . 37 

V. Clerk of the Assembly . . . .45 

VI. Electricity, and Other Things . . 55 

VII. The Leading Citizen 64 

VIII. Franklin Aids General Braddock . 77 

IX. Franklin's First Official Visit to 

England 90 

X. A Long Absence Abroad . . . .100 

XL The Home Coming 107 

XII. Franklin Tries to Stop the Stamp 

Act 119 

XIII. Family Affairs ...... 131 

XIV. The Political Pot Boils Over . . 143 

XV. Franklin's Work in France ., > .156 

XVI. Closing Events of a Busy Life . . 169 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Benjamin Franklin Frontispiece 

From a copy of the painting 
by Martin 

FACING PAGE 

Franklin's Birthplace . . . . . . .12 

In Milk Street, Boston. 
From a rare print 

Franklin, the Boy 24 

Entering Philadelphia. From 
the sculpture by MkcKenzie 

Letter from Franklin to William Strahan . . 102 
On the Outbreak of the Revolution, Frank- 
lin wrote this characteristic epistle to 
the King^s Printer. After the War their 
friendship was resumed. 



THE STORY OF 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 



THE PRINTER S APPRENTICE 

One fine evening in the year 1717 or there- 
abouts, a group of youngsters met near the 
old mill pond, which lay between Haymarket 
Square and Causeway Street in Boston. On 
the side where the boys stood, the saltmarsh 
which bounded the pond had been trampled 
into a quagmire by their eager feet during 
many a happy hour of minnow fishing. Their 
leader, an enterprising youth of ten or twelve, 
proposed that they remedy this. 

Not far away lay a big pile of stones, part 
of the material for a new house, and just what 
they needed to build a fine, dry wharf. He 
suggested that they bring these over and build 
their wharf that very evening. His enthus- 
iasm was catching. The workmen had gone 
for the night, and in a few minutes they were 



10 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

all busily at work, dragging over the stones 
and fitting them into place. Soon backs grew 
tired and hands sore, but under the urging of 
their leader, they persisted, until at last the 
wharf was completed. 

But the morrow told a different tale. The 
loss of the stones was discovered, and the cul- 
prits detected. They were taken to task, and 
though their leader pleaded the usefulness of 
their work, they were soon convinced that 
"nothing was useful that was not honest." 

Benjamin Franklin, the lad whose gift for 
leadership was so early shown, was the young- 
est son of Josiah Franklin and his second wife, 
Abiah Folger. He was born January 17, 
1706. His father had come to America from 
Northamptonshire, England, to find the reli- 
gious freedom there denied. He settled in 
Boston, where his first wife died leaving seven 
children. Those were the days when large 
families were common. Later Josiah remar- 
ried, and ten more children were added to the 
household. It must have been like a continual 
house party, with all that throng romping 
about* 

When Benjamin's father settled in Boston, 

i 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 11 

he found that his trade of dyer was not a profit- 
able one in the new country. So he estab- 
lished himself in business as a tallow-chandler 
and soap-maker. In this he was more suc- 
cessful, making a sufficient income to bring 
up his nimierous family in modest comfort, 
lie had little time for public matters, though 
his reputation for "sound understanding and 
solid judgment in prudential matters" was so 
well known that the great men of both Church 
and State visited him in his home to obtain his 
advice on matters of importance. 

Benjamin learned to read while very young, 
and showed so much promise in his studies at 
home, that his father decided to educate him 
for the Church. At eight years of age he was 
sent to grammar school, so that he might ac- 
quire the necessary knowledge of Latin. He 
went through the entrance class and the one 
above it in less than a year, and was prepared 
to enter the third. But before this was ac- 
complished, his father had decided that he 
could not provide the expense of a college edu- 
cation, and Benjamin was taken from the 
granmiar school and sent to a writing and 
arithmetic school for another year. The writ- 



12 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

ing he soon mastered, but the arithmetic proved 
too much for him. At the end of the year, 
when he was but ten years of age, he was taken 
from this school, and his education considered 
complete. The problem now was to choose a 
trade for him. 

The simplest course was to put him into his 
father's business. This was done, and the great 
statesman of the future spent the next two 
years cutting wicks for candles, filling the 
moulds, attending shop, and running errands. 
But when twelve years of age, his dishke of the 
business had grown so intense, that his father 
began to cast about for another occupation for 
him. This seemed the more urgent because 
the lad, who was an expert swimmer and boat- 
man, began to dream of following his brother 
Josiah's example, and running away to sea. 
So the wise father went with his young son 
to watch various workmen at their tasks, try- 
ing to find out in this way which of the trades 
pleased him the most. 

"How do you like that trade, my son?" he 
would ask, pausing before a cobbler's, or a 
blacksmith's door. 

About this time, an older son, James, a 




FRANKLIN'S BIRTHPLACE 
In Milk Street, Boston. From a rare print 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 13 

printer, had just returned from London, 
bringing with him a printing press and type 
with which to establish himself in Boston. 
Benjamin still wanted to go to sea, but seeing 
no way to do this, and preferring the printing 
business to anything else which had been of- 
fered, he was persuaded to bind himself to 
work for his brother until he was twenty-one. 

In fact, the printing business soon became 
of absorbing interest to the young apprentice. 
He worked dihgently and became very useful 
to his brother. But the greatest advantage 
to him was the ready access to books which 
the work offered. He made the acquaintance 
of many people who owned books, so that he 
was able frequently to borrow works he would 
not otherwise have been able to obtain. He 
became a constant reader, unconsciously devel- 
oping a style and diction which later were so 
characteristic of his own writings. 

Benjamin Franklin owed much to his 
father's interest and counsel in these formative 
days. The boy had written some ballads, which 
he himself described later as "wretched stuff," 
but which had had a ready sale because of the 
timeliness of their subjects. His brother 



14 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

James, hoping to make some profit now and 
again from their sale, encouraged him to con- 
tinue, but his father took pains to point out 
to him their worthlessness, and the fact that 
"versemakers were usually beggars." Tliis in- 
duced him to give up poetry. 

On another occasion, having entered into an 
argument with another lad on the value of 
education for women, the papers which passed 
between the two came to the notice of Ben- 
jamin's father. Without touching on the sub- 
ject of the argument, this worthy man pointed 
out the differences between the two styles of 
writing. The work of the printing 'prentice 
excelled in spelling and punctuation, as might 
be expected, but that of his opponent showed 
a charm of method and expression far superior 
to the other. 

Benjamin at once determined that he would 
learn to write well. By some chance he came 
upon a copy of the Spectator , a weekly jour- 
nal published in London, devoted to the writ- 
ings of such men as Steele, Addison and others. 
Its finished style dehghted the lad. He de- 
termined, if possible, to acquire this polished 
style for himself. Using the Spectator as a 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 15 

study book, he would carefully read an arti- 
cle, lay the book aside, and rewrite the piece 
from memory, using the same idea, but sub- 
stituting his own words while attempting to 
preserve a similar style. 

One of the agreements in the articles of ap- 
prenticeship was that Benjamin should re- 
ceive regular wages only in the last year of 
his work. But books cost money, and the lad 
began to look about for some means of increas- 
ing his supply. He was now sixteen, and had 
adopted, as the result of some reading on the 
subject, a vegetable diet. This opened the 
way. First learning how to cook some of the 
simpler dishes, he proposed to James that he 
would board himself for one-half of what it 
cost his brother to board him. James consented 
to this arrangement, and the youth thereafter 
prepared his own meals, finding it possible, 
because of the simplicity of his diet, to save 
a goodly fund for his treasured volumes. 

At about this time, Benjamin began to re- 
gret his failure at school to master the study 
of arithmetic. He therefore purchased a book 
on the subject, and added it to his other 
studies. He soon corrected his ignorance, and 



16 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

went on to the study of rhetoric. From this 
he began to read Socrates, becoming so 
charmed with what he read, that he determined 
to adopt the method of the sage. He ceased 
being positive and contradictory in argmnent, 
and set himself to cultivate a modest manner 
of speech, feeling that such a manner would be 
more convincing that an aggressive one. In 
this way he laid the foundation of that grace 
and simplicity of address which later made him 
the foremost American diplomat of his day. 

Some two years before, when Benjamin was 
fourteen years of age, his brother had begun 
to print a newspaper, which he called the New 
England Courant. This paper gave the 
young writer an opportunity to see his work 
in print, though he was forced at first to use 
some craft in getting it accepted. Knowing 
that his brother would under-rate any work of 
his, he wrote in a disguised hand and under 
an assumed name, slipping the finished copy 
under the door of the shop. 

What was his delight to find his articles ac- 
cepted and printed! But when he later con- 
fessed that he wrote them, James only 
glowered. 



II 

A RUNAWAY BOY 

"Have you heard the news, father?" asked 
Benjamin one Sunday on a visit home. 

And in answer to an inquiring look, he con- 
tinued: "James is arrested, and they are 
threatening to stop the Courant/* 

"Why so?" asked the elder Franklin. 

"Why they say, over in London, that we are 
too outspoken. They want us to keep our 
ink out of politics, and James won't do it. 
That's what makes the paper popular." 

As the upshot of this arrest, James was sen- 
tenced to prison for a month. 

Benjamin also was arrested, but since he 
was only an apprentice, and so had no author- 
ity over the matter published in the paper, the 
case against him was dismissed, though he re^ 
fused to give the council the information they 
required. 

17 



18 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

James had served his sentence and was about 
to be released, when he was served with an 
order that prohibited him from pubhshing his 
paper. This was a great blow to the printer, 
as well as to those who had been accustomed 
to use this medium for the expression of their 
views. They held a consultation, and found 
a possible way out in the wording of the order. 
This read that "James Franklin should no 
longer print the paper called the New Eng- 
land Courantf "What shall we do about it?" 
they asked. "The paper must go on. To stop 
it is a blow at free speech." 

"Why not make young Benjamin here the 
editor?" someone suggested. 

This idea at once found favor though 
James Franklin made a wry face. So it 
was decided to continue the paper under the 
name of the apprentice, Benjamin; but in 
order that there should be less chance of inter- 
ference by the Assembly, Benjamin's inden- 
tures were returned to him, with a full release 
signed on the back. This was to show to offi- 
cers of the Government, if necessary, to pro- 
tect James from any suspicion that he was still 
the real publisher. But James had no inten- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 19 

tion of losing the services of the cleverest and 
most useful of his employees, so private in- 
dentures were drawn up covering the rest of 
the imexpired period. 

This was Benjamin's opportunity. His 
brother was a man of quick temper, who did 
not hesitate to resort to blows on slight provo- 
cation, though Franklin himself later excused 
him on the ground that "perhaps I was too 
saucy and provoking." At the time, however, 
he was filled with resentment from ill-treat- 
ment, and at last the storm broke. Seizing 
the occasion of some fresh difference between 
them, and feeling convinced that his brother 
would not dare attempt to hold him by expos- 
ing the private indentures, he boldly informed 
James that he would work for him no longer. 

He had guessed correctly. James did not 
wish to confess the subterfuge under which he 
had continued to print his paper against the 
order of the Assembly, though he still wished 
to retain Benjamin's services. He appealed 
to his father, who sided with James. The boy 
in desperation then planned to run away. He 
would not return to the hated shop ! 

Fortunately he found a vessel sailing for 



20 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

New York, whose captain agreed to take him 
aboard. Some of Benjamin's precious books 
were sold to provide money for the passage, 
and just before the ship was ready to leave its 
moorings, he sUpped aboard. Franklin later 
censured himself for breaking faith with his 
brother, calhng it the first great "errata of 
my life," but at the moment he was filled only 
with a great sense of freedom and desire for 
adventure. 

After a fair voyage of three days the ship 
docked in New York, and the seventeen year 
old traveler found himself alone in this strange 
town, friendless and almost penniless. But the 
blood in his veins was pioneer blood, and not to 
be daunted. He sought out the printer of the 
place and applied to him for work. There was 
no work to be had. He told the old man of 
his pUght and asked his advice. The lad's 
personahty pleased the printer, and he 
said: 

*'My son at Philadelphia has lately lost his 
principal hand by death; if you go thither, 
I beheve he may employ you." 

Franklin's own account of his trip to Phila- 
delphia, in an autobiographical letter to his 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 21 

son, reads like a chapter from DeFoe. He 
says: 

"In crossing the bay, we met with a squall 
that tore our rotten sail to pieces, . . . and 
drove us upon Long Island. In our way, a 
drunken Dutchman, who was a passenger too, 
fell overboard ; when he was sinking, I reached 
through the water to his shock pate, and drew 
him up. , . . His ducking sobered him a little, 
and he went to sleep, taking first out of his 
pocket a book, which he desired I would dry 
for him. . . . 

"When we drew near the island, we found 
it was at a place where there could be no land- 
ing, there being a great surf on the stony 
beach. So we dropped anchor, and swung 
round toward the shore. Some people came 
down to the water edge and hallooed to us, as 
we did to them ; but the wind was so high, and 
the surf so loud, that we could not hear so as 
to understand each other. There were canoes 
on the shore, and we made signs, and hallooed 
that they should fetch us; but they either did 
not understand us, or thought it impracticable, 
so they went away, and night coming on, we 
had no remedy but to wait till the wind should 



22 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

abate; and in the meantime, the boatmen con- 
cluded to sleep, if we could; and so we crowded 
into the scuttle, with the Dutchman, who was 
still wet ; and the spray beating over the head 
of our boat, leaked through to us, so that we 
were almost as wet as he. In this manner we 
lay all night, with very little rest; but the 
wind abating the next day, we made shift to 
reach Amboy before night, having been thirty 
hours on the water, without victuals or any 
drink but a bottle of filthy rum, the water we 
sailed on being salt. 

"In the morning, crossing the ferry, I pro- 
ceeded on my journey on foot, having fifty 
miles to Burhngton, where I was told I should 
find boats to carry me the rest of the way to 
Philadelphia. 

"It rained very hard all the day; I was 
thoroughly soaked, and by noon a good deal 
tired; so I stopped at a poor inn, where I 
stayed all night, beginning now to wish I had 
never left home. I cut so miserable a figure, 
too, that I found, by the questions asked me, 
I was suspected to be some runaway servant, 
and in danger of being taken up on that suspi- 
cion. However, I proceeded the next day, and 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 23 

got to an inn, within eight or ten miles of Burl- 
ington, . . . where I lay all night, and the 
next morning reached Burlington, but had the 
mortification to find that the regular boats 
were gone a little before my coming, and no 
other expected to go before Tuesday, this be- 
ing Saturday; wherefore I returned to an old 
woman of the town, of whom I had bought 
gingerbread to eat on the water, and asked 
her advice. She invited me to lodge at her 
house till a passage by water should offer ; and 
being tired with my foot travelling, I accepted 
the invitation, . . . and thought myself fixed 
till Tuesday should come. However, walking 
in the evening by the side of the river, a boat 
came by, which I found was going toward 
Philadelphia, with several people in her. 
They took me in, and as there was no wind, 
we rowed all the way; and about midnight, 
not having yet seen the city, some of the com- 
pany were confident we must have passed it, 
and would row no further, the others knew not 
where we were; so we put toward the shore, 
got into a creek, landed near an old fence, 
with the rails of which we made a fire, the night 
being cold, in October, and there we remained 



24 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

till daylight. Then one of the company knew 
the place to be Cooper's Creek, a little above 
Philadelphia, which we saw as soon as we got 
out of the creek, and arrived there about eight 
or nine o'clock on Sunday morning, and landed 
at the Market Street wharf." 

In this way, ragged, hungry, dirty and faint 
for sleep, Benjamin Franklin came to Phila- 
delphia. One dollar (Dutch) and a shiUing 
in coppers comprised his total wealth. His 
trunk he had left in New York to be sent on by 
sea, so that he had no other clothes than those 
he wore and what he had stuffed into his 
pockets. His hunger at least he could appease. 
He found a bake shop, and asked for three 
pennyworth of bread. To his surprise he was 
handed three huge rolls. He tucked one un- 
der each arm, and began to eat from the third. 
He must have cut a funny figure, and one at 
which he often laughed in later years. As he 
walked down the street, a young girl stood in 
a doorway and watched him pass, smihng a 
little at his ridiculous appearance. That 
young girl, just seven years later, became his 
.wife. He walked on and presently came again 
on the point at which he had debarked. Here 




FRANKLIN, THE BOY 

Entering Philadelphia. From the sculpture 

by MhcKenzie 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 25 

he found the boat still at anchor. Satisfied 
with the one roll he had eaten, he gave the other 
two to a woman passenger who had still fur- 
ther to go. Then he went into the streets 
again, this time following a crowd of well- 
dressed people into the Quaker Meeting house, 
where, thoroughly exhausted with all he had 
gone through since leaving Boston, he fell 
asleep. 

Acting on the advice of a young Quaker, 
Franklin slept that night at the Crooked Bil- 
let, in Water Street. The next morning he 
made himself as neat as possible, and set out 
for Bradford's, the printer's. Here, to his sur- 
prise and pleasure, he found the old man from 
New York, who had made the trip on horse- 
back. Finding that his son could not give 
the lad work, the elder Bradford went with 
the applicant to interview another printer, 
Keimer. This man promised him work in a 
few days, and Benjamin stayed to put his 
press in order. Then he returned to Brad- 
ford, who invited him to stay with him until 
he should have definite emplojnnent. In re- 
turn for this hospitality, Franklin performed 
what tasks he could. 



26 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

In a few days Keimer sent for the young 
printer and took him into his shop. Also, not 
caring to have him live with a rival printer, 
Keimer arranged lodging for him at the home 
of Mr. Read, whose daughter, Deborah, had 
watched him that eventful Sunday with his 
rolls of bread. He was able now, however, to 
put up a better appearance, for his trunk had 
arrived with his belongings. The runaway ap- 
prentice was at last securely employed and 
comfortably housed. His active mind now 
turned toward making himself acquainted with 
the life of this new and thriving city. 



Ill 

FRANKLIN OPENS HIS OWN SHOP 

One day in the early Spring of 1724, Frank- 
lin, then just past his eighteenth birthday, was 
working with Keimer near a window, when 
they saw two elegantly-dressed gentlemen 
cross the street to enter the shop. The de- 
lighted Keimer ran down to greet them, only 
to learn to his surprise and chagrin that they 
wished to see, not himself, but his young work- 
man, Franklin. One of the visitors was Sir 
WilUam Keith, Governor of Philadelphia. He 
had read a letter which Franklin had written 
his brother-in-law, and had been so impressed 
with its excellent style that he determined to 
make the acquaintance of the writer. 

On the Governor's suggestion, Franklin ac- 
companied the two gentlemen to a tavern where 
they might talk together. "Young man," he 
said, "we have had an eye on you, and we have 

27 



28 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

a proposition to make you." Franklin lis- 
tened, his eyes shining. It was to the effect 
that he should obtain enough money from his 
father to set up in business for himself, when 
both men promised him their influence to se- 
cure for him the Government printing. 

"Both Keimer and Bradford do wretched 
work," added the Governor. "We want a 
likely young fellow like you, who can do a good 
job." 

Though Franklin had little hope of inducing 
his father to think favorably of such a propo- 
sition, it was decided that he should take the 
first boat to Boston and make the attempt. So 
at the end of April he set out, bearing with him 
a letter from the Governor which he hoped 
would further his plan. His arrival took the 
family entirely by surprise, for they had heard 
nothing of him during the seven months he 
had been absent. Indeed, the return of the 
young traveller, with his new clothes and silver 
watch, and his pockets full of silver money, 
made a big stir in the quiet town. But pleased 
though he might be, such excitement affected 
the judgment of Franklin's good old father 
not one whit. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 29 

The Governor's plea was refused. Benja- 
min was too young, in his father's opinion, to 
be trusted with such a business. It was well 
that he should return to Philadelphia, since he 
had made such a good beginning there; and 
if, by industry and economy he had saved 
enough to start in business when he came of 
age, well and good. If he needed some help 
then, his father would give it, but not yet. He 
must prove himself first. 

So back to Philadelphia went the young 
printer, this time, happily, with his father's full 
approval. He hastened to present his father's 
letter to the Governor, who seemed much dis- 
appointed to read that Benjamin was not to 
set up in business for himself. Then he said 
impetuously : 

"Since he will not set you up, I will do it 
myself. Give me an inventory of the things 
necessary to be had from England, and I will 
send for them. You shall repay me when you 
are able ; I am resolved to have a good printer 
here." 

This raised Benjamin's hopes again, and he 
made the inventory. When he presented it to 
Sir William, it was decided that Franklin 



30 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

should himself go to England to buy the mate- 
rials, carrying a letter of credit from the Gov- 
ernor. He was to leave on the next boat, some 
months later, and in the meantime continue to 
work with Keimer, keeping his project secret. 
This he did, but when he set sail, by various 
excuses the Governor had delayed giving him 
the letter of credit with which to purchase his 
stock, and Franklin found, to his dismay, that 
the Governor's generosity habitually went no 
further than words. Fortunately for him, he 
had made friends on shipboard with a merchant 
from Philadelphia, who explained this char- 
acteristic of Sir William's, and advised him to 
secure a position in England and save money 
for his return. 

Unfortunately for young Franklin, how- 
ever, James Ralph, a young man he had known 
intimately in Philadelphia, had accompanied 
him to England. This Ralph was a man of 
fair ability and some charm, but of very weak 
character. In his company Franklin forgot 
the economy he had always exercised, and 
found himself continually out of funds 
through their gay life and the necessity of 
lending money to his companion, which the 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 31 

latter, being unable to find employment, could 
not repay. Franklin, with his usual industry, 
had secured work immediately in an excellent 
printing house, and circumstances soon reliev- 
ing him of the burden of Ralph's friendship, 
his natural good habits^j^ere resumed, and he 
decided to make^Jje most of his enforced stajr 
in London. 

Franklin had been eighteen months in Lon- 
don when his friend Dunham, with whom he 
had kept in touch since they had first met on 
the boat from Philadelphia, informed him that ^^ 
he was about to return to America, and offered 
him a position in his mercantile house if he 
would return with him. Tired of London, 
Franklin agreed, and they returned to Phila- 
delphia in October. Here, for something over 
a year, the two lived and worked together, a 
real bond of affection and respect developing 
between them. But just after Franklin had 
passed his twenty-first birthday, Dunham died, 
leaving his young friend again dependent on 
his own resources. 

At this point Keimer, his old employer, who 
had enlarged his shop and was doing a very 
fair amount of business, in spite of the fact 



32 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

that his help was inefficient, offered Franklin 
good wages to take over the management of 
his printing shop. Dishking the man's charac- 
ter, the young printer hesitated to associate 
himself with hun again, but the offer was so 
attractive that he at last consented. He soon 
found reason for his suspicions. The men 
in the shop were untrained hands who were 
bound to work for Keimer for a given period 
for extremely low wages. It was Keimer's 
intention to keep Franklin only so long as it 
was necessary for the others to learn his 
methods, in spite of his time agreement with 
him. This proved to be the case, and Franklin 
soon left him. 

In the meantime Keimer changed front. 
He had learned that some paper money was 
to be printed for New Jersey, and he feared 
that the other printer would engage Frankhn 
and so secure the commission, for Franklin 
was the only printer in the place who could do 
the work required. He therefore called on 
Franklin and after apologizing for his hasty 
temper, asked him to return to his former posi- 
tion. Since this fitted in so well and with his 
new plans, Franklin consented, and went with 
Keimer to Burlington to fill the money contract 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 33 

which had been given his employer. Through 
this work for the Government, the yomig work- 
man made several important friendships which 
were to mean much to him when he later 
entered upon his public career. 

After three pleasant months, with much time 
spent in the company of cultured men of 
affairs, with whom his brilliant, well-stocked 
mind and ready wit made him a great favorite, 
Franklin found himself again in Philadelphia, 
the New Jersey money contract satisfactorily 
completed, and Keimer with sufficient money 
in consequence to keep him going for some time 
longer. Franklin had not long been back when 
he received the materials which had been or- 
dered from England, and he and a friend, 
Meredith, opened a shop for themselves. 

From the beginning the new business throve. 
Franklin's ready capacity for making friends 
stood him in good stead, and much work was 
sent to him from many sources. Meredith was 
of little use as a partner. His work was poor, 
and he began again to indulge in excessive 
drinking, a habit which Franklin's influence 
had at first seemed to keep in restraint, but 
which now resumed its full sway over the un- 



34 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

fortunate man. Franklin's friends tried to 
persuade him to sever the partnership, two of 
them going so far as to offer to advance the 
money to finish paying for the press, if he 
would do so. This, however, did not seem fair 
or honorable to Franklin, though his friends' 
generosity and confidence touched him deeply, 
and he continued to carry out his part of the 
bargain to the utmost of his abiHty, until cir- 
cumstances brought about the very condition 
that seemed so desirable. 

The elder Meredith was imable to meet the 
second payment on the press when it became 
due. The merchant who had sold the material 
to them sued, and they stood in danger of 
having their place sold to settle the judgment. 
In this emergency, Meredith suggested to 
Frankhn that since he, Meredith, was such a 
poor workman, it would be better that he 
should return to the farm, and that Franklin 
might with certain payments sever the part- 
nership, and obtain full possession of the shop. 
This was done, the two friends again prof- 
fering their assistance, and in 1729, at twenty- 
three years of age, Benjamin Frankhn became 
his own master and sole owner of the httle 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 35 

printing shop which was to become, through 
the genius of its master, one of the famous 
places of Philadelphia. 

Now began a period of real prosperity. 
Franklin soon added to his printing establish- 
ment a stationer's shop, getting a supply of 
paper, parchment and the Hke superior to any 
that was then being sold in Philadelphia. In 
this, also, he throve, so that soon he was em- 
ploying others to carry on part of the work, 
and had begun to repay the loan which had 
made possible the purchase of the stock. 

When he had first worked for Keimer 
before going to England, and had lived with 
the Read family, Franklin had paid serious at- 
tention to the daughter Deborah, but had been 
restrained from a positive engagement by the 
young lady's parents, owing to their youth. 
In the excitement of travel the lad neglected 
to write and seemingly forgot his implied obli- 
gation. Later, an offer of marriage was 
accepted by Miss Read under the advice of her 
parents, with a man named Rogers. This mar- 
riage proved a most unhappy one, the wife 
returning very shortly to the home of her par- 
ents, and the man Rogers, of whom it was 



36 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

reported that he akeady had a wife in Eng- 
land, leaving the country. Franklin blamed 
himself greatly for this unhappy condition, 
feeling that his own neglect had made it possi- 
ble, and having still a great affection for the 
young lady, which was returned in kind, they 
were married on the first of September, 1730, 
when Frankhn was twenty-four years of age. 
The marriage seems to have resulted most hap- 
pily, the young wife not only making an ex- 
cellent housekeeper, but assisting her husband 
very materially in his new business. 

At about this time, Keimer was obhged to 
sell out to satisfy his creditors. Frankhn now 
had but one business rival, Bradford, to whom 
he had gone on his first visit to Philadelphia, 
and who was, by this time, in such easy circimi- 
stances that he paid little attention to business. 
There was nothing now to prevent the ambi- 
tious Franklin from reahzing his wildest 
dreams, and toward this he began to direct his 
way. 



IV 

A FIRST TASTE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS 

Franklin loved a debate. His friends quite 
naturally formed themselves into groups or 
clubs for the discussion of timely subjects, of 
which his was usually the dominant mind. 
Now, on his settling down into a definite career 
he drew about him another and larger group, 
which he called the "Junto." The rules gov- 
erning this club required that "every member, 
in his turn, should produce one or more queries 
on any point of Morals, Politics, or Natural 
Philosophy, to be discussed by the company; 
and once in three months produce and read an 
essay of his own writing, on any subject he 
pleased." 

The Junto existed for forty years, and 
became "the best school of philosophy, moral- 
ity, and pohtics that then existed in the prov- 
ince," while the rules of debate prevented "our 

87 



38 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

disgusting each other." The number of mem- 
bers was restricted to twelve, but later so many 
wished to bring in their friends, that Franklin 
suggested they should form separate clubs, to 
be operated under the same rules as the parent 
club, but the new club and its relation to the 
parent club to be kept secret. Five of the 
members succeeded in forming their clubs, 
each bringing to the parent club reports of the 
meetings and retaining their own membership 
in the Junto. Through this excellent scheme 
an avenue was opened up for the discussion 
of many public matters which later developed 
a telling influence in general thought. Two of 
the noteworthy public reforms which Franklin 
instigated may serve to show the way in which 
the younger clubs were used. 

The first of these was the regulation of the 
night watch. *'It was managed by the con- 
stable . . . who warned a number of house- 
keepers to attend him for the night. Those 
who chose never to attend paid him six shill- 
ings a year . . . for hiring substitutes. But 
the constable, for a little drink, often got such 
ragamuffins about him as a watch, that respect- 
able housekeepers did not choose to mix 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 39 

with . . . and most of the night was spent in 
tippling." 

Frankhn brought this condition to the at- 
tention of the Junto, suggesting the hiring of 
proper men and the better distribution of the 
six shilling tax, so that those who had great 
property to protect should pay more than 
those who had little. 

The second public matter which Frankhn 
took up through the same channels was fire 
protection. The response was immediate and 
enthusiastic. A band of thirty members was 
formed, who obligated themselves to keep cer- 
tain buckets and equipment on hand and to 
assist in extinguishing fires. Soon other com- 
panies were formed and an equipment of lad- 
ders and fire engines, secured for each, until, 
as Franklin put it, "I doubt if there is a city 
in the world better provided with the means of 
putting a stop to beginning conflagrations." 

Benjamin Frankhn had always thought 
very deeply on religious matters, and after 
reading some atheistic books was for a while 
in sympathy with their views. But though he 
never adopted any rehgious creed, he soon re- 
turned to the belief in a Divine Being. 



40 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

In place of a religious belief other than this, 
Franklin drew up a plan of the virtues he 
wished to acquire, duly entering in a book his 
triumphs and his failings. In his autobiogra- 
phy he gives an interesting account of his 
struggle with this orderly system of character 
building, claiming that all the "constant 
felicity" of his life he owed to this serious at- 
tempt to set up habits of mind and body that 
would enable him to be a useful citizen, "and 
obtain for him some degree of reputation 
among the learned." 

Franklin was twenty-six years of age when 
his great love of books suggested to his active 
mind a plan out of which has grown the now 
world-wide system of public libraries. There 
was no bookseller's shop south of Boston, and 
the few readers in Philadelphia were forced 
to send to England for their books. Each 
member of the Junto had acquired a few vol- 
umes, and these Franklin suggested bringing 
to one central room, and allowing each to bor- 
row from the general stock for home reading. 

This proved such a good plan that he 
wished to extend these advantages to the gen- 
eral public, and drew up a plan for a public 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 41 

subscription library. Franklin himself se- 
cured, after much trouble, fifty subscribers of 
forty shillings each. The money thus ad- 
vanced was spent in books, and the library 
opened. Each subscriber was to pay ten shill- 
ings a year, and to replace any books which 
he might lose. Some books were presented to 
the institution and reading soon became popu- 
lar. Other towns followed Philadelphia's ex- 
ample, and, to quote from Franklin's 
biography, "our people, having no public 
amusements to divert their attention from 
study, became better acquainted with 
books . . . and better instructed and more 
intelligent than people of the same rank gen- 
erally are in other countries." 

The collection of books was moved about 
from place to place as each became too small 
to hold it, until in 1790 it was placed in the 
present Philadelphia Library. 

Franklin's busy mind now conceived the idea 
of pubHshing a newspaper. There was but 
one paper printed in Philadelphia, by Brad- 
ford, and it was so poor that it seemed to offer 
no rivalry at all. Unfortunately Franklin 
spoke of his project to a man named Webb, 



42 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

who had worked with him in Keimer's shop, 
and he told Keimer of it. Keimer immedi- 
ately started one himself, hoping in that way 
to prevent Franklin and to gain the advantage 
for his shop. But Franklin was not to be 
stopped so easily. He began at once to write 
clever articles for Bradford's paper, and so 
ridiculed and belittled Keimer's paper that 
in a few months he was able to buy him out 
for a trifle. He named the paper the Penn- 
sylvania GazettCj and from the beginning it 
was so superior in appearance to Bradford's 
paper, that it readily gained a large subscrip- 
tion list, and finally became a profitable part 
of the business. 

It was through his paper, as well as by a 
private pamphlet, that Frankhn brought 
much weight to bear in the matter of paper 
currency. There was very little money in 
the country at the time, and while the wealthy 
people opposed any increase in paper cur- 
rency, Franklin was convinced that a mod- 
erate increase would be a good thing. When 
the House at last authorized the new issue, the 
printing was given to Franklin to do, another 
reward for the excellence of his work. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 43 

All this occurred while Franklin was still 
in the early twenties, and left him, though so 
young, an acknowledged power throughout 
the province. Almost all the public printing 
gradually came into his hands, not so much 
through the might of his pen, as because of 
the excellence of his workmanship. One 
serious handicap in the distribution of his 
paper yet remained — ^the fact that Bradford, 
his only rival, was also postmaster. This man 
took advantage of his office to prevent Frank- 
lin's paper from being sent through the post- 
office, though the young publisher managed 
to overcome the restriction in some measure 
by bribing the post riders. This still left the 
advantage with the postmaster, however, and 
he was able to gain some trade, especially in 
the matter of advertising, which was a great 
loss to Franklin. The generosity of Frank- 
lin's character was shown later, for when he 
in turn became postmaster, the very inconven- 
ience he had suffered from this mean trick on 
the part of his rival made him determine never 
to be guilty of such an act himself. 

At the age of twenty-six, still another ven- 
ture seized him, and we find him beginning 



44 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

the publication of an Almanac. At the head 
of each page was printed some verse or para- 
graph embodying a comment on life or some 
homely advice as pleased the publisher, and 
in the opening part of the book was inserted 
a sort of discourse, containing a collection of 
witty proverbs. This he called "Poor Rich- 
ard's Almanac," and it became one of the most 
popular publications of the day, reaching a 
distribution of ten thousand copies. 



CLEEK OF THE ASSEMBLY 

At twenty-seven, the lad who had entered 
Philadelphia penniless and friendless had be- 
come so well established in business that he 
began to open up branch offices. The first of 
these was in Charleston, South Carolina, and 
this succeeded so well that Franklin was en- 
couraged to open others, in each case promot- 
ing men who had already proved their worth 
in the Philadelphia office. Most of these men 
were able to buy Franklin's equity in the busi- 
ness within six or seven years, so becoming 
full owners of their own shops. 

As his business throve life became a little 
easier for the printer, and he began again to 
extend his education, this time taking up the 
study of modern languages, first French, then 
Italian, then Spanish. This was to prove a 
fortunate circumstance in his later life, when 

45 



46 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

his knowledge of French became a necessity 
on his appointment as Minister to France. 
The ease with which he acquired Greek and 
Latin after mastering the modern languages 
confirmed him in an opinion he had long held, 
that the study of these two should be super- 
seded in the schools by the study of modern 
languages. 

Franklin's public career began with his be- 
ing chosen in 1736, at the age of thirty, as 
Clerk of the General Assembly. The first 
year there was no opposition to the appoint- 
ment, but the next year when he was again 
proposed a new member who wished the place 
for a friend spoke strongly against his reap- 
pointment. Franklin was retained in spite of 
this opposition, but the circumstance deter- 
minded him to win the friendship of the mem- 
ber. The means with which he accomplished 
his purpose were characteristic. 

"I did not," he says, "aim at gaining his 
favor by paying any servdle respect to him, but 
after some time took this other method. Hav- 
ing heard that he had in his library a certain 
very scarce and curious book, I wrote a note to 
him, expressing my desire of perusing that 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 47 

book, and requesting he would do me the favor 
of lending it to me for a few days. He sent it 
immediately, and I returned it in about a week 
with another note, expressing strongly my 
sense of the favor. . . . We afterward became 
great friends, and our friendship continued to 
his death. This is another instance of the truth 
of an old maxim I had learned, which says: 
'He that has once done you a kindness will 
be more ready to do you another, than he whom 
you yourself have obliged.' " 

This office was a great satisfaction to Frank- 
lin, since it paid a moderate salary and also 
helped him to secure the greater part of the 
Government printing for his shop. He was 
reappointed each year, holding the office for 
fourteen years, at the end of which period he 
was elected member of the Assembly itself. 

It was during his second year as Clerk that 
he was appointed postmaster of Philadelphia, 
succeeding his rival, Bradford. Franklin was 
glad to get this office as it afforded him a great 
advantage over his competitor. Bradford's 
paper had always been inferior to Franklin's, 
but the fact that its pubHsher was postmaster 
had enabled him to keep a fair circulation. 



48 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

With this position reversed, Franklin's paper 
began to increase in circulation and advertis- 
ing, until it became the leader. 

For the next few years Franklin's life went 
along tranquilly enough. With the affairs of 
the post-offlce and the Assembly, his printing 
shop and the Junto, his time was well and 
profitably occupied. Two projects for the 
public welfare, however, began to shape them- 
selves in his ever active mind — one the estab- 
lishment of an Academy for the better educa- 
tion of the youth of Pennsylvania; and the 
other the provision of some scheme of defense 
for the province against the French and their 
Indian allies. 

Frankhn first proposed the estabhshment of 
an Academy in 1743, but he was unable to 
carry his plan into effect until several years 
later, first because of his inability to find a man 
of whom he approved to take charge of the 
school, and later through the absorbing of all 
the time he could spare in the matter of public 
defense. In 1744, however, he estabhshed the 
American Philosophical Society, with nine 
members, six of whom were members of the 
Junto. This society was organized to provide 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 49 

a central association for the interchange of 
ideas of all students of science or philosophy 
in the colonies, especially along the practical 
lines of invention. Like his father, Franklin 
had always been a clever mechanic, and was 
never so happy as when inventing something 
that would make work more efficient or hfe 
more comfortable. His best-known invention 
was the Franklin stove. 

The invention of this stove by Franklin fol- 
lowed a discussion in the Junto on "Why do 
chimneys smoke?", and it was to foster dis- 
cussions on such practical subjects as this, as 
well as on more abstract problems, that the 
Philosophical Society was established. This 
society, though capable of so great usefulness, 
fared very ill for the first few years of its exist- 
ence, its founder complaining that the mem- 
bers were too lazy to make the best use of it. 
Later it grew into an important scientific body. 

Governor Thomas, meanwhile, was trying to 
induce the Assembly to pass a bill providing 
for a citizen army; but the majority of the 
Assembly, being Quakers, opposed any form 
of warfare or defense. So alarming was the 
situation in view of a possible Indian attack. 



50 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

that Franklin decided to take a hand in the 
matter. He wrote a pamphlet, which he called 
"Plain Truth," showing the necessity of an 
organized body for defense in case of attack, 
and setting forth as clearly as he could the 
dangers of the existing state of unprepared- 
ness. In the pamphlet he asserted that he 
would have ready, in a few days, a plan of 
organization which would be open for the sig- 
natures of those who wished to join in the pro- 
posed plan of defense. 

The response was immediate and enthusi- 
astic. The people clamored for the proposed 
plan. Franklin hurriedly drew up the draft 
and called a mass meeting of the people to dis- 
cuss it. The house was full. Franklin ex- 
plained the purpose of the suggested associa- 
tion, and asked for signatures of those who 
wished to join it. Twelve hundred people 
signed. The papers were sent through the 
country. Signatures poured in until at last 
ten thousand men had bound themselves to 
fight in defense of their province. Unable to 
obtain money through the Quaker Assembly 
for the purchase of arms, each man provided 
his own arms. They then formed themselves 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 51 

into companies and regiments, and met each 
week for military drill. 

The Philadelphia regiment asked Franklin 
to be colonel of their regiment, but Franklin, 
feeling himself unfit for the work, refused, and 
suggested a friend named Lawrence to be 
appointed in his stead. 

Franklin now proposed that a battery be 
built below the town and furnished with can- 
non for its defense. By means of a lottery 
the necessary money was quickly raised, and 
the battery erected and fitted with some old 
cannon from Boston. These were not suffi- 
cient, so they sent to England for more, and 
in the meantime commissioned Franklin and 
three others of their number to go to New 
York and borrow some cannon from Governor 
Clinton. Of the result of the journey Frank- 
lin writes with characteristic humor : 

"Clinton at first refused us peremptorily; 
but at dinner with his council, where there was 
great drinking of Madeira wine, as the cus- 
tom of that place then was, he softened by de- 
grees, and said he would lend us six. After 
a few more bumpers, he advanced to ten ; and 
at length he very good-naturedly conceded 



52 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

eighteen. They were fine cannon, eighteen- 
poimders, with their carriages, which we soon 
transported and mounted on our battery, 
where the associators kept a nightly guard 
while the war lasted, and among the rest, I 
regularly took my turn of duty there as a com- 
mon soldier." 

The Quaker members of the Assembly 
meanwhile blocked the mihtary efforts. Their 
rehgious scruples forbade them from fighting. 

An amusing incident in connection with the 
fire company convinced FrankHn of the gen- 
eral feeling. Of the thirty members, twenty- 
two were Quakers. A meeting was called to 
decide whether the treasury fund of sixty 
pounds should be donated to the defense lot- 
tery. The non-Quaker eight favored the 
proposition, and one Quaker appeared to op- 
pose it. By the Quaker's request they waited 
for some time to allow others to arrive. While 
they were waiting, a message was brought to 
Franklin that someone wished to see him 
below. To his surprise he found waiting for 
him two of the Quaker members, who told him 
that the others were assembled in a nearby 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 53 

tavern ready to come and vote with him if nec- 
essary, but they preferred the vote to go 
through without their coming out openly in 
its support if possible, as they did not wish to 
antagonize their Quaker friends. Quite reas- 
sured, Frankhn returned to the meeting, and 
willingly conceded the request of the Quaker 
that they wait another hour, and then take a 
deciding vote. At the end of the hoiu* no other 
Quaker having arrived, the vote was taken, 
and the money turned over to the defense 
association. 

Among other amusing incidents of which 
Franklin speaks as showing the embarrass- 
ment suffered by the Quakers because of their 
anti-war principles, one tells of the way in 
which an appropriation for gunpowder was 
voted by the Assembly "for the purchasing of 
bread, flour, wheat, or other grain", the other 
grain being understood to refer to the gun- 
powder. An equivocation suggested itself to 
Franklin in connection with the fire company 
meeting, for if the project failed, he had in- 
sinuated to another member, that they propose 
buying a fire engine with the money. "Then 
if you nominate me and I you as a committee 



54 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

for that purpose, we will buy a great gun, 
which is certainly a fire engine." 

"I see," he replied, *'y^^ have improved by 
being so long in the Assembly; your equivocal 
project would be just a match for the 'wheat 
or other grain.' " 

Fortunately peace was declared without the 
need to resort to the use of arms, but his great 
and successful activities in the public service 
in the matter of defense led to a considerable 
growth in the good esteem in which Franklin 
was held by the people of the province. 



VI 

ELECTRICITY, AND OTHER THINGS 

With peace came some slight leisure for the 
busy Franklin, and he at once turned his mind 
to the completion of his earlier plans for the 
estabUshment of an Academy. As usual, he 
commenced his campaign by writing and pub- 
lishing a pamphlet, in which he showed the 
need of such an institution and the way in 
which it could be provided. A few days later, 
a subscription list was opened, and a sufficient 
amount of money provided to begin the proj- 
ect. Before the year was out, 1749, a house 
had been secured and the school was opened. 
It proved tremendously successful, the num- 
ber of scholars increasing so rapidly that 
larger quarters soon had to be provided. For- 
tunately there was an immense hall which had 
been built some years before to provide for 
public meetings. This hall was encumbered 

55 



56 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

with some debt, and little in demand. By; 
mutual agreement it was turned over to the 
new Academy. From this start has grown the 
University of Pennsylvania of the present day. 

Franklin had taken into partnership David 
Hall, an excellent man who worked with him 
for eighteen years. Then Hall purchased 
IVanklin's share in the shop and materials. 
But early in the partnership, Hall took over 
all the work connected with the shop, leaving 
Franklin with the treasured "leisure for philo- 
sophical study and amusement." He began 
immediately to experiment with the new won- 
der, electricity. 

During a visit to Boston Franklin had met 
a certain Dr. Spence, who was showing some 
electrical experiments. The Leyden jar had 
just been perfected, and Franklin's imagina- 
tion seized avidly on the possibilities of this 
marvelous science. Now he proceeded to in- 
vestigate the new discovery. He bought all 
of Spence's apparatus, and soon became more 
efficient in their use and demonstration than 
the doctor himself, adding several experiments 
of his own, so that "my house was continually 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 57 

full, for some time, with people who came to 
see these new wonders." 

It was impossible that Franklin should be 
interested in a science so undeveloped and with 
so large a field for experiment and discovery, 
without adding something practical and im- 
portant. His two most important contribu- 
tions were his theory that electricity was not, 
as was then thought, a substance created by 
friction, but "an element diffused among, and 
attracted by, other matter, chiefly by water 
and metals" ; and his invention of the lightning 
rod. This last he discovered by means of a 
metal-tipped kite, which he allowed to fly dur- 
ing a storm, when the metal of the kite at- 
tracted the electricity from the atmosphere 
and discharged it along the line by which it 
was held. Following this discovery, Franklin 
argued that if a pole with a metal end should 
be erected, the electricity would be drawn by 
the point and harmlessly conducted into the 
ground. This led to his invention of the light- 
ning rods. 

But no matter how eager Frankhn might 
be to give his time to scientific experiment, he 
had been too valuable in the public service to 



58 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

be allowed to give it up. On the contrary, his 
additional leisure was seized upon by the pub- 
lic, who "laid hold of me for their purposes, 
every part of our civil government almost at 
the same time imposing some duty upon me. 
The Governor put me into the commission of 
the peace ; the corporation of the city chose me 
of the common council and soon after an alder- 
man; and the citizens at large chose me a 
burgess to represent them in Assembly. This 
latter station was the more agreeable to me, 
as I was at length tired of sitting there to hear 
debates, in which, as clerk, I could take no 
part, and which were often so unentertaining 
that I was induced to amuse myself with mak- 
ing magic squares or circles. ... I would not^ 
however, insinuate that my ambition was not 
flattered by all these promotions; it certainly 
was; for considering my low beginning, they 
were great things to me; and they were still 
more pleasing, as being so many spontaneous 
testimonies of the public good opinion, and by 
me entirely unsohcited." 

When Franklin was elected member of the 
Assembly, his old post of Clerk was given to 
his son William. WiUiam was the eldest of 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 59 

Franklin's children, only two of whom lived to 
grow up, the other a daughter, Sarah. One 
other child, Francis Folger, died at four years 
of age of smallpox. For this child Franklin 
had a great and lasting affection. When 
speaking of a grandson many years later he 
said, "He brings often afresh to my mind the 
idea of my son Franky, though now dead 
thirty-six years, whom I have seldom seen 
equalled in everything, and whom to this day 
I cannot think of without a sigh." 

In spite of his many pubhc interests, Frank- 
lin was devoted to his home and family. Nor 
did he hmit this affectionate interest to his 
wife and children. His nephews and nieces 
found him ever ready to assist in their educa- 
tion or in setting them up in business. To his 
father and mother he was ever affectionate, 
sending them, as he grew in prosperity, gifts 
of money with which to provide special com- 
forts for their declining years. The monu- 
ment which he erected to their memory stands 
in the Granary Burying Place, Boston. He 
also helped very materially those of his brothers 
and sisters who needed his aid. His youngest 
and favorite sister Jane depended entirely on 



60 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

his generosity during the later part of her life. 

Even his mother-in-law was numbered 
among those under his care, though she was in 
some measure able to provide for herself. 
From an advertisement in Franklin's papers 
shortly after his marriage, we learn that the 
Widow Read had moved to the printing house, 
and there proposed to sell her famous Oint- 
ment for the itch. Family salve for burns, "and 
several other salves and ointments as useful," 
as well as "Lockyer's PiUs at 3d a Pill." Evi- 
dently the Widow Read was an agreeable 
member of the printer's household, for on her 
death he wrote his wife to condole with her 
on the loss of her mother, assuring her that he 
was sensible "of the distress and affliction it 
must have thrown you into. Your comfort 
will be that no care was wanting on your part 
toward her. . . . It is . . . a great satisfac- 
tion to me that I cannot charge myself with 
ever having failed in one instance of duty and 
respect to her during the many years that she 
called me son." 

Of his wife Franklin always spoke with af- 
fection and praise, and though in his visits to 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 61 

Europe on various missions for his country he 
was frequently away from home for years at 
a time, the tender and confident tone of his 
letters, as well as the many useful and beauti- 
ful gifts he constantly sent, bore eloquent wit- 
ness of the good judgment with which he had 
chosen the mistress of his home. In his Al- 
manac "Poor Richard" says: "He who must 
thrive must ask his wife," and Franklin will- 
ingly concedes the share his wife's industry 
and frugality had in helping him to get his 
first start toward prosperity, though there is 
a charming touch in his story of the first de- 
parture from this principle of economy in their 
simple home. 

"We kept no idle servants, our table was 
plain and simple, our furniture of the cheapest. 
For instance, my breakfast was a long time 
bread and milk, and I ate it out of a twopenny 
earthen porringer, with a pewter spoon. But 
mark how luxuries will enter families, and 
make a progress, in spite of principle; being 
called one morning to breakfast, I found it in 
a China bowl, with a spoon of silver. They 
had been bought for me without my knowledge 
by my wife, and had cost her the enormous 



62 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

sum of three-and-twenty shillings, for which 
she had no other excuse or apology to make, 
but that she thought her husband deserved a 
silver spoon and China bowl as well as any of 
his neighbors. This was the first appearance 
of plate and china in our house, which after- 
ward, in a course of years, as our wealth in- 
creased, augmented gradually to several hun- 
dred pounds in value." 

But though Franklin censured wastefulness 
and vanity, he was far from being miserly. 
He advocated, rather, a fair adjustment of a 
man's spending to his income. His letter to 
his wife on the repeal of the Stamp Act is 
characteristic of this principle of his : 

"As the Stamp Act is at length repealed, I 
am willing you should have a new gown, which 
you may suppose I did not send sooner, as I 
know you would not like to be finer than your 
neighbors, unless in a gown of your own spin- 
ning. Had the trade between the two coun- 
tries totally ceased, it was a comfort to me to 
recollect that I had once been clothed from 
head to foot in woollen and linen of my wife's 
manufacture, that I never was prouder of any 
dress in my life, and that she and her daugh- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 63 

ter might do it again if it was necessary. I 
told the Parliament that it was my opinion, 
before the old clothes of the Americans were 
\vorn out, they might have new ones of their 
own making. I have sent you a fine piece of 
Pompadour satin, fourteen yards, cost eleven 
shiUings a yard, a silk negligee, and a petticoat 
of brocaded lutestring for my dear Sally." 



VII 

THE LEADING CITIZEN 

"A message from his lordship, the Gover- 
nor!" the new Clerk of the Assembly an- 
nounced, one morning. 

The members, among them Franklin, set- 
tled back in their seats to listen. 

"The Carlisle Indians are a menace to the 
public safety," the Governor said in effect. 
"They are dissatisfied. We must draw up a 
treaty with them, and assign them proper 
bounds." 

The Assembly agreed that this was a wise 
thing to do. Mr. Morris, the Speaker, and 
Benjamin Franklin were elected to go. So 
one fine morning, their broad shoe buckles 
twinkling in the early sunshine, and their big, 
soft, three-cornered hats set firmly on their 
heads, off they went, the musical jingle of the 
horses' harness making them a pretty accom- 
paniment. 

'64 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 65 

They found the) Indians encamped just out- 
side the town. There were about a hundred 
of them all told, and they had built themselves 
huts, which they had arranged around a big 
open square in the center. A meeting was 
called at once, but the Indians didn't want to 
talk — they wanted rum, which the commis- 
sioners had forbidden the inhabitants of the 
town to sell them. 

"You give us rum, we talk," they grunted. 

"No rum yet," replied the commissioners. 
"Let us finish our business. After that is com- 
pleted, you shall have all you want." 

With this they were forced to be content, 
and like the donkey who drew his load only 
because of the tempting turnip held ever before 
his nose, they settled at once into the work of 
the meeting, and in a short time completed 
the treaty to everybody's satisfaction. Then 
they demanded their pay, the rum. 

Just after dusk, the commissioners were 
chatting and smoking in their lodging when 
they heard a great uproar in the direction of 
the Indian camp. Wondering what was hap- 
pening, they hurried out, to find the whole 
countryside lit up by the reflection from a 



66 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

huge bonfire which the Indians had built in 
the central square of their camping place. 
About the fire, in different stages of drunken- 
ness, staggered, danced and writhed the naked 
brown bodies of the Indians, the red glare 
throwing into relief their weird poses. Noth- 
ing could be done to quiet them, so the 
commissioners went home. The hideous 
clamor kept up far into the night, a party of 
the Indians at midnight surrounding the house 
in which the commissioners were lodged, ham- 
mering on the doors and walls, and demand- 
ing more rum. Finding no notice taken of 
them, they stopped at last, and returned to 
the camp, which gradually sank to silence as 
one after another of the revellers was over- 
come by drunken exhaustion. 

The next day the dazed and contrite Indians 
sent three of their old men to apologize to the 
white men, offering the curious excuse that 
"God made the rum for the Indians to get 
drunk with." 

By the time Franklin was forty-five he was 
the most admired man of the State. It was 
about this time that he received a visit from a 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 67 

friend of his, a Dr. Thomas Bond. He had 
been trying to gather funds with which to 
open a hospital, but had met with no success. 
In despair he went to Franklin. 

"It's no use, Franklin," he said, "nothing 
can be done in this town without you. 
We'll never have a hospital unless you lend a 
hand. When I ask people to subscribe, all 
the answer I get is, *Have you consulted Mr. 
Franklin? What does he think of it?' When 
I tell them I haven't, they put me off by say- 
ing they'll think about it." 

Frankhn smiled at the comphment, and 
plied his friend with questions about his 
scheme. The result was, he was so pleased 
with the idea, that he willingly consented to 
help. He wrote clever stories of the plan for 
the newspapers, and when he thought the 
people were ready, began to ask for funds. 
The response was generous, but the sum re- 
quired was a large one. The leader soon saw 
that his plan would not be possible unless the 
Assembly came to the rescue with some public 
funds. 

But when Franklin appealed to the Assem- 
bly, those members from districts outside Phila- 



68 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

delphia raised some objection. They felt that 
the people of the town did not want it badly- 
enough to give any great proportion of the 
amount. So the shrewd Franklin drew up a 
bill making the contribution from the Assem- 
bly dependent on the raising of a certain sum 
from the townspeople, knowing that the mem- 
bers would pass it believing that the sum 
required could not be raised. But Frankhn 
knew what he was about. He raised the 
money, secured the public grant, and the hos- 
pital was established. This hospital is still 
known as the Pennsylvania Hospital. 

Franklin next busied himself with the filthy 
condition of the streets of the town. They 
were unpaved and unlighted. As usual when 
he had a reform in mind, he began to write in 
favor of it for the newspapers. But beside 
this, he won the public interest in a very prac- 
tical way. He managed to get the Jersey Mar- 
ket paved with brick, which made it much more 
comfortable for shoppers. Then when he 
found that the traffic from the surrounding 
streets brought quantities of filth up on to the 
pavement, he engaged a man to sweep the 
whole pavement each day for an amount equal 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 69 

to sixpence a month for each house in the dis- 
trict. Then he went to each householder, and 
asked him to sign an agreement to pay the six- 
pence in order that they might have a clean 
street. Everyone was delighted at the im- 
provement, and it was not long before Frank- 
lin was able to present a Bill to the Assembly 
for the paving of the entire city. 

Like the famous preacher who said, "The 
world is my parish," Frankhn seemed to con- 
sider Philadelphia his home and its people his 
family, for he was always about some task for 
their happiness. It seems incredible that any 
one man could have brought about so many 
public improvements as did Franklin in a very 
few years. Only his unceasing industry made 
such a record possible. He was as loath to 
waste time as to waste money. When he was 
learning Italian he used sometimes to play 
chess with a friend who was also learning the 
language. This friend Uked much better to 
play chess than to study, so Franklin, finding 
that too much of his time was being taken up 
by the game, made a bargain with his friend. 
He made it a condition of the game that the 
winner should be allowed to set a task in Ital- 



70 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

ian that each must do before they played to- 
gether again. In this way, as he said, they 
"beat each other into the language," 

But though so willing to serve the public, 
Franklin was not to be tricked into using his 
time or his influence for other than the general 
good. Many people tried to get him to help 
them on more personal projects, but his advice 
to the Rev. Gilbert Tennant shows how he dealt 
with them. This gentleman called on Frank- 
lin one day and asked his assistance to raise 
money to build a church. Franklin refused. 

"Then," said the gentleman, "wiU you be 
good enough to give me a list of those people 
you know have subscribed to other pubhc mat- 
ters?" 

"No," replied Franklin, "I cannot do that. 
It does not seem fair to me that, because they 
have been generous in other causes, I should 
send you to them for something else." 

"I am sorry. May I ask at least that you 
give me the benefit of your advice, as to who 
to go to and who not." 

"That will I readily do," replied Franklin, 
his genial smile and sparkling eyes putting the 
discomfited minister more at ease. "In the 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 71 

first place, apply to all those whom you know 
will give something; next, to those whom you 
are uncertain whether they will give anything 
or not, and show them the list of those who 
have given; and lastly, do not neglect those 
who you are sure will give nothing, for in some 
of them you may be mistaken." 

The visitor laughed, thanked his host, and 
took his leave. He also took the advice, and 
succeeded amazingly, for he asked everybody, 
and got enough money to build the church 
which was the forerunner of that standing now 
at Twenty-first and Walnut Streets. Frank- 
lin had given him two of the virtues which 
played so great a part in his own wonderful 
success, courage and perseverance. 

During Frankhn's connection with the post- 
office, he had done some extra work for the 
Postmaster General by visiting other post- 
ofiices and bringing them up to date in their 
accounts. It was a natural thing, therefore, 
that when the Postmaster General died, the 
ojffice should be offered to Frankhn. He ac- 
cepted it, to work jointly with a William 
Hunter. They were to receive six hundred 
pounds a year between them, if they could 



72 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

make it out of the profits of the office. The 
office had never made a sufficient profit to pay 
salaries and leave anything over to send to 
England. As usual, Frankhn started in to 
improve things, the improvements costing the 
partners in office nine hundred pounds during 
the first four years. After that it began to 
pay them, then it began to pay enough to make 
a profit for the home office in England, and 
finally it produced, through the new methods, 
"three times as much clear revenue to the crown 
as the post-office of Ireland." Franklin was 
justly proud of this record, telling the story 
delightfully in his biography, and ending with : 
"But since I was displaced by a freak of the 
ministers, they have received from it — not one 
farthing." 

It was on business of the post-office that he 
made a trip to New England, when the oppor- 
tunity was seized on by Harvard University to 
present him with the degree of Master of Arts. 
Yale had done this some time before, their 
action having been taken in recognition of 
FrankUn's discoveries and inventions in elec- 
tricity. Franklin was justly proud of these 
unexpected honors. He was always regretful 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 73 

of his lack of early education, and in speaking 
of this, he says : 

"Thus, without studying in any college, I 
came to partake of their honors." 

Franklin was forty-eight years old when 
troubles with England arose which finally re- 
sulted in the union of the colonies and their 
separation from the Mother Country. Seeing 
that war was almost certain between England 
and France, a congress was held in Albany, 
to which each colony sent representatives, to 
discuss the best means of protecting the people 
from the French and Indians. Franklin was 
one of the representatives from Pennsylvania, 
and during the journey he drew up a plan for 
the uniting of the colonies with a central gov- 
ernment. He had been urging some such 
action for some time in his newspaper writings, 
and several of the other commissioners had been 
working on similar plans. After much discus- 
sion and comparison, Franklin's plan was voted 
the best. The congress which had been called 
to discuss the business of defense, took up this 
question also, and ordered copies of the plan 
printed and sent to the various colonies for 
their acceptance. 



74 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

Franklin now had great hope that the union 
of the colonies, which he had so long hoped for, 
and felt so sure would be the means of the 
greatest growth and security for the people, 
would become an actual fact. But he was to 
be disappointed. The Assembhes thought it 
allowed too much prerogative, and England 
thought it too democratic. So they compro- 
mised by combining, through the various 
governors, for the raising of troops and the 
building of fortresses, a temporary arrange- 
ment to take care of the peril of the moment. 
The expense of the movement was to be taken 
care of by the treasury of Great Britain, the 
money to be refunded by means of a tax on 
the American people through an Act of Parlia- 
ment. 

Frankhn had long held the opinion that the 
colonies could and should provide both arms 
and armies for their own defense. England 
had opposed the training of American troops, 
fearing that with a great and efficient army, 
the colonies would break away from the Mother 
Country and declare themselves an indepen- 
dent nation. Franklin resented this suspicion, 
but quite understood it. His greatest indig- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 75 

nation was directed, however, against the 
taxation clause of the proposed union. If the 
money were to be raised in America, and he 
was quite agreed that it should be, he felt that 
it should be raised by the provinces themselves, 
and not by taxation through an Act of the 
English Parliament. 

He fought the measure by every means in 
his power. He wrote for the newspapers, and 
to the British government, pointing out the 
injustice of taxation without the consent of 
the taxed, and the fact that to tax these peo- 
ples, who by their courage and self-sacrifice 
had won for the Mother Country a great exten- 
sion of her territories, was to treat them as ene- 
mies and a conquered people, rather than to 
give them the reward which such a great con- 
tribution to the lands and commerce of the 
dominion deserved. 

But his efforts met with no success. The 
British Government had been growing more 
and more friendly to the idea of making the 
American colonies contribute something of 
their wealth to the treasury by direct taxation, 
and the measure was adopted. Not only that, 
but more and more of the power over public 



76 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

funds which the separate Assemblies had held, 
the British Government now began to remove, 
with the excuse that they used these powers 
to encourage independence. As one looks 
back over the history of the succeeding years, 
one is amazed at the short-sightedness of the 
men in charge of pubhc matters in England^ 
who could possibly expect that this high- 
handed method of government could have any 
other result than the one which took place — 
the separation of the colonies from the home 
country and their union as an independent 
nation. 

However, no one yet dreamed that such a 
thing would happen. And meanwhile the com- 
mon peril from the French and Indians still 
held them to England. 



VIII 

FRANKLIN AIDS GENERAL BRADDOCK 

Franklin's loyalty to the true interests of the 
people, early in his political career brought 
him into ill favor with the proprietors of the 
colony, the Penn family. The "proprietors," 
as they were called, were the descendants of 
William Penn, whose treaty with the Indians 
had given him control of much of the public 
lands of Pennsylvania. The state, as we know, 
was named for him. 

It was the privilege of these proprietors to 
appoint the Governor to his office, and they 
were careful to appoint only men who would 
serve their interests. Their chief instruction 
was that no bill was to be signed by him which 
allowed any tax to be made on their properties. 
They had sold or leased for long periods a 
great deal of their property, but there were 
huge tracts of unimproved land still held by 

77 



78 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

them, and on this they succeeded in evading 
taxation. They lived in England on the im- 
mense wealth produced by their Pennsylvania 
holdings, refusing to acknowledge any obliga- 
tion to the source of their riches, and caring 
nothing for the province except to draw money 
from it. 

Franklin insisted that the Penn brothers 
should bear their share of the expense of de- 
fense against the Indians and the French. It 
was a curious situation. The Assembly would 
pass bills providing money for their needs, and 
the Governor would veto them, unless a clause 
excusing the Penn family from the tax should 
be inserted. The Assembly abandoned the 
submitted bill, and usually through Franklin's 
cleverness found some other way of providing 
the money. This went on until after the de- 
feat of the small army under General Brad- 
dock which had been sent from England, when 
friends in England whom Franklin had kept 
informed of the way in which the Penn's rep- 
resentatives had ignored the public good in 
favor of their masters, caused so much com- 
ment on the stingy habits of the proprietors, 
that they were forced to send to the Assembly 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 79 

a gift of five thousand pounds, to be added to 
the sum for defense raised by the Assembly. 
This was accepted as taking the place of the 
tax, and the bill for taxation was passed with- 
out the Penn lands. 

General Braddock, with his two regiments 
of British regulars, landed in Virginia. He 
was proud and overbearing, and very sure of 
his own opinion. His soldiers knew nothing of 
Indian warfare, but this did not disturb Brad- 
dock. He was so certain of his own ability 
that he did not even use the friendly Indian 
scouts who came to help him. Instead, he 
treated them so harshly that they soon left him 
to shift for himself. 

The Philadelphia Assembly, fearing lest 
Braddock should become their enemy when he 
learned of their belief, as Quakers, that war of 
any kind was sinful, asked Franklin to go to 
him and try to secure his friendship. So with 
his son WiUiam for company, off he set, and 
soon arrived in Frederickstown, where he 
found the General. As Postmaster General 
he found an excuse for his visit in the need of 
talking over plans to help Braddock in the 
matter of despatches, and his own delightful 



80 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

personality was enough to make even the 
doughty Britisher urge him to stay as long as 
he could. After several days, during which he 
was much with the General, and had been able 
to give him an excellent report of what the As- 
sembly had done to help the expedition, he pre- 
pared to return, but when he went to take his 
leave, he found the General in a fury. 

A company of men whom he had sent into 
the country to secure horses and wagons to 
transport the troops had just returned. They 
had brought in only twenty-five, and some of 
these were in such poor condition as to be al- 
most useless. 

"Look at them! Twenty-five and we need 
a hundred and fifty," said the angry General. 
"We will give up the expedition. It is impos- 
sible with such paltry equipment," and he 
stamped up and down, raihng at the ministers 
who brought about his landing in such an un- 
satisfactory place. 

"It is too bad," said Frankhn, when he could 
get in a word. "If you had landed in Pennsyl- 
vania, you would have found every farmer with 
his own wagon." 

Immediately the harassed General seized on 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 81 

the promising idea. "Then you, sir, who are 
a man of interest there," he said, "can probably 
procure them for us. I beg you will under- 
take it." 

"What terms do you offer the owners?" 

"Write down what terms you think fair," 
was the reply, "and I will sign it." 

"Very good, sir," said Franklin. 

This was done, and with repeated thanks 
for his help Franklin returned home, where he 
immediately began his campaign for the collect- 
ing of horses and wagons. This he did through 
advertisements, which brought such good re- 
sults that within two weeks one hundred and 
fifty wagons and two hundred and fifty-nine 
horses were on their way to the camp. The 
terms of hire had included food for the animals 
and wages for the men, but for the compensa- 
tion for such horses and wagons as should be 
lost or destroyed the owners insisted on Frank- 
lin himself being responsible. This later led to 
a great deal of trouble for the patriot, for al- 
most all were destroyed in the only engagement 
which the little force suffered, and repayment 
was delayed so long that several suits were 
brought against Franklin before the Govern- 



82 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

ment came to his relief and removed the respon- 
sibility. 

Nothing could be a better demonstration of 
the genuine kindliness of Franklin's feeling 
toward others than another incident which 
grew out of his visit to the camp. He learned 
there that the younger officers, with very lit- 
tle pay, were finding it impossible to provision 
themselves for the long march across a wild 
country. This touched Franklin deeply, and 
on his return, without having said anything 
of his plans to the officers, he wrote to the As- 
sembly proposing that a present of food for 
the journey be sent to these young men. One 
can readily imagine the gratitude the officers 
felt to their late visitor when each received a 
present of a riding horse, on whose back was 
strapped a huge package containing such sub- 
stantial articles of food as a twenty pound keg 
of butter, two hams, six pounds of coffee, and 
the same quantity of cocoa, rice, raisins, cheese 
and wine, as well as many other things. 

It is also an interesting sidelight of this visit 
to Braddock's camp that Franklin met for the 
first time a young Virginia colonel, with whom 
he was later to be intimately associated in pub- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 83 

lie affairs. That young man was George 
Washington. 

The Braddock expedition was a tragic fail- 
ure. The enemy waited until the little army 
were within nine miles of their first objective, 
and then, with half of the troops on either side 
of a river which they had to cross, attacked 
them front and rear. The troops were thrown 
into great confusion, many of the officers were 
killed and almost all the rest wounded. Brad- 
dock himself was mortally wounded. Had 
it not been for Washington and his scouts who 
reformed the shattered lines, hardly a man 
would have lived to tell the tale. 

No time was now lost in forming a civilian 
army. Frankhn drew up a bill for the prepar- 
ing of a militia, and by exempting the Quakers 
from service quickly got it passed. Companies 
were formed, and soon the town was humming 
with the drill of its citizen soldiers. In the 
meantime Franklin was urged by the Gover- 
nor to take over the defense of the northwestern 
part of the province, where the Indians were 
on the warpath. He was to build a line of 
forts and train the local men in the use of arms. 

Franklin never considered himself a military 



84 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

man, but he was ready to do anything which 
seemed to be needed. So, gathering to himself 
a force of five hundred and sixty men, he set 
out for the village of Gnadenhut, a Moravian 
settlement which the Indians had just burned, 
murdering the inhabitants. They met with no 
mishap on the way, and arriving at Gnadenhut 
fortunately found some lumber near that had 
been a sawmill, and soon built themselves huts. 

Within a week a fort of sorts had been 
erected and their one swivel gun set up. This 
gun they shot off as soon as they had it in place, 
so that any Indians who might be within hear- 
ing should be duly impressed with their pre- 
paredness. The fort was really only a rude 
stockade, with a platform all round the inside, 
on which men might stand to fire through the 
loopholes. But it was sufficient for defense 
from the Indians, who had no large guns. 

When the little band at last felt at liberty 
to send scouting parties out into the nearby 
country, they found that they had been watched 
during the whole time by small bands of In- 
dians. It was January and very cold. Indians 
are always careful to keep their feet as warm as 
possible, and all around the fort back in the 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 85 

woods were found the holes in which they had 
built charcoal fires, and the places where they 
had lain with their feet dangling over the edge 
of the little pit above the warm ashes. 

Speaking of the importance of keeping a 
band of men busy, in order that they might be 
happy and contented, Franklin tells an amus- 
ing story in his autobiography. He said it re- 
minded him of a captain whose rule it was to 
keep his men constantly at work, and when 
the mate once told him there was nothing left 
to do, he said, "Oh, then make them scour the 
anchor." 

But Franklin could not long be spared from 
Philadelphia. He had no sooner provisioned 
his fort than he was recalled to the Assembly. 
There were now three forts on that frontier, 
two others having been built by the Moravians 
from Bethlehem under directions which Frank- 
lin had left them when on the march through 
their district, and since the people seemed well 
content with this protection, Franklin prepared 
to return home. He had lived and labored j ust 
as the rest had done, and was glad to rest a 
few days at Bethlehem to recover. 

He says: "The first night, being in a good 



86 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

bed, I could hardly sleep, it was so different 
from my hard lodging on the floor of our hut 
at Gnadenhut, wrapped only in a blanket or 
two." 

On his return home Franklin was delighted 
to find that the work he had begun had been 
well kept up. Several companies had been 
formed, officers had been chosen, and the men 
had been well drilled. There was a company 
of artillery, with six brass cannon, which, 
Franklin proudly says, "they had become so 
expert in the use of as to fire twelve times a 
minute." Once more the Philadelphia regi- 
ment asked FrankUn to become its colonel, and 
this time he accepted. There were about twelve 
hundred well trained men in the regiment, and 
their great admiration and love for their colonel 
was sometimes a source of embarrassment to 
him. He tells amusingly of his first review of 
them, after which they escorted him to his home 
and insisted on firing a salute in his honor. 
The vibration broke some thin, glass tubes be- 
longing to his electrical apparatus, and he says, 
"my new honor proved not much less brittle; 
for all our commissions were soon after broken 
by a repeal of the law in England." 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 87 

An unwise demonstration of their affection 
for their commanding officer served also to 
bring about a greater enmity on the part of the 
proprietor, who was already much incensed 
over Franklin's opposition to the excusing of 
the Penn estates from taxation. Franklin was 
about to set out on a journey to Virginia. He 
was just getting on his horse when up to the 
house, in full uniform, with the rattle of 
accoutrements and the sparkle of swordhilts, 
swept the officers of his regiment, come to 
escort him to the ferry. With his natural dis- 
taste for any sort of show, Franklin was as 
annoyed as he was astonished, his embarrass- 
ment increasing as his well-meaning but mis- 
taken officers drew their swords and rode with 
them so, making a lane of naked steel for their 
admired colonel. This demonstration, much 
as Franklin disliked it, was used as a means of 
persecution by his enemies. 

One of the Penn brothers had recently vis- 
ited America, and no such honor had been 
shown him; neither had the Governor ever 
been so treated. He became loud in his blame 
of Franklin as the cause of all the discontent 
in the colonies, going so far as to accuse him of 



88 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

intending to take the government into his own 
hands, of which intention the escort by his of- 
ficers was an indication. He was unable to do 
Frankhn any harm, however, and a change 
of office occuring shortly after, he showed his 
recognition of the strength of his opponent by 
instructing the new Governor to seek his 
friendship, and endeavor to win him to the side 
of the proprietors. 

Franklin was too sincere to be caught in any 
such scheme. He had one interest, the interest 
of the people of his province. He gladly prom- 
ised his friendship and assistance to the new 
Governor, with one proviso: 

"I hope," he said, "y^^ have not brought 
with you the unfortunate instruction which 
your predecessor was so hampered with." 

The Governor evaded a direct answer, but 
it did not take long to find out that he had 
been told to follow the same course as before, 
to avoid signing bills which taxed the proprie- 
tors' lands. Things became so bad at last that 
the Assembly, charging that such instructions 
worked against the best interests of the Crown 
as well as of the people, determined to send a 
petition to the King, begging him to adjust the 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 89 

matter. There was but one man in the As- 
sembly with the knowledge and the address 
for such a mission, Franklin, and he was ap- 
pointed to go to England as agent of the Prov- 
ince to present the petition. 



IX 

franklin's first official visit to ENGLAND 

Franklin arranged to sail from New York 
on the next packet, and had his goods put on 
board. But just as he was about to leave for 
the port, Lord Loudoun, the new Governor 
of the province of New York, arrived in Phila- 
delphia, on purpose to try to patch up the quar- 
rel between the Assembly and the Penns. He 
had nothing to offer which had not already been 
discussed, but he threatened that unless the 
Assembly raised funds, without taxing the pro- 
prietors, for their defense against the attacks 
of the Indians and the French, they could go 
unprotected, as he would not give them any 
soldiers of the regular forces. In this case, 
there was nothing to do but submit, and they 
did so, but first Franklin drew up a protest 
for the Assembly records, stating that they did 
so under force, and not as conceding the pro- 

90 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 91 

prietors' right to exemption. Then he pre- 
pared again for his interrupted journey, to find 
that the packet, with all his goods on board, 
had sailed without him. 

Lord Loudoun had charge not only of all 
military matters but also of the sailing of the 
packets. There were two still in the harbor, 
and Franklin asked the Governor when the 
next would sail. He was told, the following 
Monday morning. So Franklin and his son, 
who was to accompany him, purchased more 
stores, and set out on Monday for New York. 
Arriving there, they found that the ship was to 
be delayed till next day, because the Gover- 
nor's letters were not ready. The next day it 
was delayed again, and this kept up day after 
day, the letters always supposedly to be ready 
the following day, until it was the end of June 
before the boat finally left the dock. It had 
been in the beginning of April that Franklin 
had gone to New York. In all this time the 
passengers had lived on board expecting to 
start the next day, eating the food they had 
bought for their trip, and fuming with impa- 
tience to be gone. The Governor seemed al- 
ways busily writing, but nothing was ever 



92 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

ready. One of Franklin's friends compared 
him with "St. George on the signs, always on 
horseback, and never riding on." 

Franklin even then was more fortunate than 
the passengers of the other two ships, for the 
changeable Loudoun, setting out for Louis- 
burg to besiege that fortress, insisted that these 
other packets go with him, so that they could 
take his letters as soon as they were ready. 
First he went to Hahf ax, where he stayed some 
time drilling his men, then he gave up the idea 
and went back to New York, taking the two 
packets and their passengers back with him. 
One can imagine the indignation of the pas- 
sengers at such an unwarranted waste of their 
time and money. In the meantime, while the 
bulk of the army was away with Loudoun, the 
French and Indians attacked and took Fort 
George, and massacred most of the inhabitants. 
One wonders again that in such a crisis, such 
hopelessly incompetent men should have been 
sent to important positions. 

Franklin and his son reached London at last 
on July 27, 1757. They had had an unevent- 
ful journey until the very last night, when the 
watchman failed to see a light ahead, and they 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 93 

suddenly found themselves on the point of 
being driven on to the rocks on which a light- 
house had been built. A quick change of course 
just saved the ship, and when the fog lifted 
in the morning the town of Falmouth lay be- 
fore them. The escape from wrecking so im- 
pressed Franklin that he made up his mind 
when he returned home he would use his influ- 
ence to secure more lighthouses for the Ameri- 
can coast. 

The energetic Franklin at once secured an 
interview with Lord Granville, President of 
the Council. That gentleman's point of view 
was a great surprise to the American repre- 
sentative. 

"You Americans," he said, "have wrong 
ideas of the nature of your constitution; you 
contend that the King's instructions to his gov- 
ernors are not laws, and think yourselves at 
liberty to regard or disregard them at your own 
discretion. But those instructions are not like 
the pocket instructions given to a minister 
going abroad. They are first drawn up by 
judges learned in the laws; they are then con- 
sidered, debated and perhaps amended in 
Council, after which they are signed by the 



94 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

King. They are then, as far as they relate to 
you, the law of the land; for the King is the 
legislator of the colonies." 

"This is a new doctrine to me, your lord- 
ship," replied the astonished American. "I 
had always understood from our charter that 
our laws were to be made by our Assemblies, 
to be presented indeed to the King for his royal 
assent, but that being once given, the King 
could not repeal or alter them. And as the 
Assemblies could not make permanent laws 
without his assent, so neither could he make a 
law for them without theirs." 

But Granville assured him that he was en- 
tirely mistaken, and FrankHn left the house 
in some alarm, seeing a greater task before him 
than he had expected. Nor were his expecta- 
tions unjustified, as he was to learn at the 
next conference, which took place at the home 
of one of the Penn brothers in Spring Garden. 
Here Franklin, after being courteously as- 
sured that his opponents wished only what was 
fair and reasonable, set forth the case of the 
Assembly, to find that what was "fair and rea- 
sonable" in the minds of the Penns was a very 
different thing from the "fair and reasonable" 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 95 

iHeas of the people of Pennsylvania. They 
talked the matter into a deadlock, neither side 
being willing to give up anything to the other, 
which meant simply that the Penns would not 
pay taxes, while Franklin, as representing the 
Assembly, refused to recognize their right to 
be exempt from taxation. At last the meeting 
broke up, nothing having been decided except 
that Franklin should write out his complaint 
and give it to them to consider. 

Now the Penns' attorney was one Ferdinand 
John Paris, an arrogant, hot-tempered man, 
who lost no opportunity to insult and annoy 
Franklin, because of the clever and merciless 
way in which the latter had answered his let- 
ters to the Assembly, letters which were as 
weak in argument as the case on which they 
were based. The Penns suggested that the 
whole matter should be discussed by Franklin 
and this Paris in conference, but Franklin 
knew well he could expect nothing but an un- 
pleasant argument in such a case, and refused 
to talk with any other than the Penns them- 
selves, the principals in the matter. 

More angiy than ever at this slight, Paris 
advised the Penns to place the matter in the 



96 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

hands of the SoHcitor General for his opinion, 
and this they did, telling Franklin that he 
would hear when the decision should be given. 
With this he was forced to be content. 

Now began a long and tedious delay for the 
energetic ambassador. After several weeks 
had passed without result, FrankUn called on 
the Penns and asked for an answer. He was 
told that no opinion had been yet received from 
the Solicitor General. He waited again for 
some weeks, called, and was again given the 
same reply. Again and again was this re- 
peated, imtil a whole year had gone by, when 
he learned that they had written a long letter 
to the Assembly, complaining of the rudeness 
of the wording of Franklin's complaint, and 
saying that they would adjust the matter if the 
Assembly would send them "a man of candor" 
to treat with. 

This letter the Assembly did not answer. 
While the tricky lawyer had been holding up 
Franklin's mission, the Assembly had managed 
to pass a bill taxing the proprietors' lands, 
and had issued and distributed in consequence 
one hundred thousand pounds in paper cur- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 97 

rency. This had, so far as they were concerned, 
settled the whole matter. 

But the Penns, furious at the Governor for 
signing the bill, were determined to do every- 
thing in their power to prevent its being rati- 
fied by the King. A hearing was arranged, and 
with two lawyers appearing for the Penns, and 
two for the delighted Franklin, whose long 
term of inaction was over, and who at last saw 
the matter just where he had wanted it, making 
a fair fight in open court. 

The legal fight was memorable, and so much 
testimony was brought in, that it was hard to 
decide. At last one of the counsel left his 
seat, and taking Franklin with him went into 
a room adjoining the council chamber. 

"Are you really of the opinion, Mr. Frank- 
lin," he said, "that no injury will be done the 
proprietory estate in the execution of this act?" 

"Most certainly, my lord," replied Franklin. 

"Then, if you are so sure, you wiU have no 
objection to enter into an engagement to as- 
sure that point?" 

"None at all," Franklin told him. 

"Then let us call Mr. Paris. I think we can 
arrange this." And in a short time, in spite of 



98 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

Paris's unwillingness to concede the victory to 
his hated opponent, the matter was settled. 
The agreement to deal fairly with the proprie- 
tory estate was drawn up and signed, and when 
the parties returned to the council chamber, the 
Bill was ratified and made law. Three years 
had been consumed in this dissension, but it left 
Franklin — who had been "a stranger," as one 
of his biographers puts it, "on an unpopular 
errand, representing before an aristocratic gov- 
ernment a parcel of tradespeople and farmers 
who lived in a distant land and were charged 
with being both niggardly and disaffected," — 
the victor in a struggle which had been waged 
for years, and in the cause of a people op- 
pressed and burdened through the greed and 
selfishness of the absentee proprietors. The 
importance of this victory can hardly be over- 
estimated, and we may consider it as the first 
real recognition of Franklin as a great states- 
man. 

But though the Penns and their legal aids 
spared no pains to make Franklin's mission as 
difficult and distasteful as possible, except for 
this his life was far from unpleasant. His 
literary reputation and his discoveries in elec- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 99 

tricity had made for him a host of friends and 
admirers in England before he arrived. These 
soon sought him out, and insisted that he visit 
them at their homes, his great wit and sense of 
humor making him a more than welcome guest. 
He travelled all over Great Britain, finding 
popularity and interest everywhere, and feel- 
ing greatly flattered when Edinburgh pre- 
sented him with the freedom of the city, and 
the University of St. Andrews gave him the 
degree of Doctor of Laws, to be followed by 
the same action on the part of the University 
of Oxford. One remembers again his com- 
ment when Harvard presented him with a de- 
gree; thinking of the short term of his school 
days, only two years in all, and thinking too 
of the many hours of earnest study which had 
brought him to this point of honor, he said, 
"Thus, without studying at any college, I came 
to partake of their honors." 



A LONG ABSENCE ABROAD 

Although the matter for which he had been 
sent to England was so well finished, Frankhn 
was not allowed to return home at once. In- 
deed, it was five years from the time he left his 
beloved Philadelphia before he saw it again. 
During this long exile, he grew to love Eng- 
land and the very many friends he made there 
so much, that he almost decided to make it his 
permanent home. But Mrs. Franklin, much 
as she loved her famous husband, could not be 
persuaded to face the discomforts and dangers 
of a trip across the ocean, and this, together 
with his almost fatherly affection for the people 
of his adopted province, brought him back. 

Always when Franklin was in England he 
made his home with Mrs. Margaret Steven- 
son, in Craven Street, London. Mrs. Steven- 
son and her daughter Mary grew very fond of 

100 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 101 

their American visitor, and did all they could 
to make him comfortable and happy. Mary 
was only a young girl, but was so unusually in- 
telligent that Franklin talked with her on his 
pet scientific subjects quite as though she were 
his equal in learning. He wanted very much 
to be able to call her daughter, and hoped to 
persuade his son William to marry her. But 
neither William nor Mary was of Franklin's 
opinion, and each chose to marry one of their 
own picking, a common habit of young folks, 
which Franklin acknowledged in spite of his 
regret at the failure of his plan. Mary was 
always like a daughter to him, even after her 
marriage and his return to America. 

It was during his first ^dsit to England that 
he met and developed a very great friendship 
for William Strahan, one of the most impor- 
tant publishers of the day, and the King's 
printer. "Straney," as Franklin used to call 
him, tried hard to persuade the American rep- 
resentative to make his home in England, even 
offering his son in marriage with FrankHn's 
daughter, Sarah, whom he had never seen, but 
evidently judged from her fond father's praise 
to be a desirable daughter-in-law. Frankhn 



102 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

wrote to his wife, telling her of the offer, and 
saying that the lad would be a good choice, as 
well as being in line as heir to plenty of money. 
But Mrs. Franklin's dread of the ocean spoiled 
the httle match-making scheme, as her husband 
had predicted to Strahan that it would, though 
the King's printer seems to have been hard to 
convince. Not long after, Strahan told Frank- 
lin that he himself had written Mrs. Franklin 
a letter, 

"I will wager you anything you like," he 
said, "that that letter will bring her to Eng- 
land.'* 

"No, my friend," laughed Frankhn, "I will 
not pick your pocket. I don't know what you 
have written, but there is no inducement strong 
enough to make my wife cross the seas." 

And so it proved; not even the desire to be 
with her dear "Pappy" as she always called 
him, could make her overcome her terror of the 
ocean. Strahan's letter was amusingly naive. 
He wrote: 

"I never saw a man who was, in every re- 
spect, so perfectly agreeable to me. Some are 
amiable in one view, some in another, he in all. 
Now, Madame, as I know the ladies here con- 




/^YS 



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^ O^. -o^ 








. ^^-Tf-z.^ d-^t-^ 



j^^^C^t^-^ ^=^=^ 



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^^.-TTL. 




LETTER FROM FRANKLIN TO WILLIAM STRAHAN 

On the outbreak of the Revolution, Franklin wrote 
this characteristic epistle to the King's Printer. 
After the War their friendship was resumed. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 103 

sider him in exactly the same light I do, upon 
my word I think you should come over, with all 
convenient speed, to look after your interest; 
not but that I think him as faithful to his Joan 
as any man breathing; ... I know you will 
object to the length of the voyage and the dan- 
ger of the seas; but truly this is more terrible 
in apprehension than in reality. Of all the 
ways of travelUng, it is the easiest and most 
expeditious; and as for the danger, there has 
not a soul been lost between Philadelphia and 
this, in my memory; and I believe not one ship 
taken by the enemy." 

It may have been that Frankhn did not urge 
his good wife too much to go to England. 
Rather in all his letters he takes it for granted 
that she will not. Mrs. Franklin was an 
excellent housekeeper, but quite unschooled 
in the manners of good society, as well as lack- 
ing in general education. She took little part 
in Frankhn's life, even in Philadelphia, and her 
intense affection for him owed nothing to his 
public fame, which, in fact, she rather resented 
as being a great care to her husband and inter- 
fering with their family life. Their letters to 
each other were full of affection, and Strahan's 



104 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

suggestion that slie had "better come over and 
look after her interests" does not seem to have 
troubled her at all. That Franklin took a 
philosophical and kindly view of his wife's fail- 
ings is shown in a little poem he wrote of her : 

**Some faults have we all, and so has my Joan, 
But then they're exceedingly small. 
And, now I'm grown used to them, so like my own 
I scarcely can see them at all." 

Also it is possible that Franklin's love for 
his native country was too great to allow him 
to settle permanently in England, even if he 
had not had the excuse of his wife's dislike of 
the sea to fall back on. Mrs. Franklin fre- 
quently sent him huge boxes of foodstuffs 
which he was used to having in America and 
which he could not readily get in England, 
such as buckwheat, Indian meal, dried peaches 
and apples. His manner of acknowledging 
the arrival of one such box shows how con- 
stantly his home was in his mind. He wrote : 

"The buckwheat and Indian meal are come 
safe and good. They will be a great refresh- 
ment to me this winter ; for, since I cannot be 
in America, everything that comes from thence 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 105 

comforts me a little, as being something like 
home. The dried peaches are excellent; . . . 
the apples are the best I ever had, and came 
with the least damage." 

In return, Franklin loved to send his "dear 
child," as he used to call her, gifts from the 
great market of London. In his choice of 
these, due probably to the example of the so- 
ciety in which he found himself, he more and 
more departed from his early opinions of what 
was and was not modest in dress. In one let- 
ter he said, "I sent my dear a newest fashioned 
white hat and cloak, and sundry little things, 
which I hope will get safe to hand. I now 
send her a pair of buckles, made of French 
paste stones, which are next in lustre to dia- 
monds." 

One of his letters, telling of having sent off 
some things, is most interesting in several ways. 
The number and variety of the gifts shows 
more than anything how much his family must 
have been in his mind, inducing him to buy 
for them so many curious or useful things, as 
he happened upon them. The description of 
the gifts themselves is interesting also, as it 
shows clearly the habits and utensils of the 



106 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

period, so that one can imagine Mrs. Franklin 
making up the curiously printed cotton into 
curtains and drapings, as she fixed up the house 
for her husband's return, seeing that the sew- 
ing of the seams of the carpet should be 
strongly done and that the pattern should be 
carefully matched, and that the silver salt 
ladles were polished to their most brilliant pos- 
sibility. It ends: 

"I hope Sally applies herself closely to her 
French and music, and that I shall find that she 
has made great proficiency. The harpischord 
I was about, and which was to have cost me 
forty guineas, Mr. Stanley advises me not to 
buy; and we are looking out for another, one 
that has been some time in use, and is a tried 
good one, there being not so much dependence 
on a new one, though made by the best hands. 
Sally's last letter to her brother is the best 
wrote that of late I have seen of hers, I only 
wish that she was a little more careful of her 
spelhng. I hope she continues to love going to 
church, and would have her read over and over 
again the Whole Duty of Man, and the Lady's 
Library." 



XI 

THE HOME COMING 

Franklin watched with the greatest interest 
the fight between the two parties in England 
over the terms of peace between Great Britain 
and France. The big point was whether Eng- 
land would return Canada or Guadaloupe to 
France. There could be no two opinions as 
to which place would be more valuable to the 
conqueror commercially, but those who advo- 
cated retaining Guadaloupe did so on the 
ground that if America were not afraid of the 
French in Canada, and depending on England 
to protect her from that coimtry, she would 
break away from the Mother Country, and de- 
clare her independence. Franklin did not take 
an active part in the matter for some time, then 
he threw the whole weight of his influence in 
the retention of Canada. 

"It cannot harm us to leave Canada to the 

107 



108 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

French," said one side. "They have learned 
their helplessness against us, and will not try- 
again very soon to fight us. As for the In- 
dians, a few forts along the border will keep 
them in order." 

But Franklin had fought Indians. He knew 
their style of warfare. "You are wrong," he 
said. "You cannot protect the country from 
Indians on the warpath by forts. They can 
pass between them through the forests, burn 
and pillage and massacre the people of the 
scattered villages, and return again in perfect 
safety. Only a Chinese wall the whole length 
of the Western frontier would be a sufficient 
protection against these savages. Experience 
has taught our planters that they cannot rely 
upon forts as a security against Indians; the 
inhabitants of Hackney might as well rely 
upon the Tower of London, to secure them 
against highwaymen and housebreakers." 

"But if the people of our colonies find no 
check from Canada," he was answered, "they 
will extend themselves almost without bound 
into the inland parts. What the consequence 
will be to have a numerous, hardy, independent 
people, possessed of a strong country, com- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 109 

municating little or not at all with England, I 
leave to your own reflections. By eagerly 
grasping at extensive territory we may run the 
risk, and in no very distant period, of losing 
what we now possess. ... If we acquire all 
Canada, we shall soon find North America it- 
self too powerful and too populous to be gov- 
erned by us at a distance." 

This opinion of William Burke drew a 
scathing reply from Franklin. "It is a mod- 
est word, this check," he said, "for massacring 
men, women and children. . . . Will not this 
be telling the French in plain terms, that the 
horrid barbarisms they perpetrate with Indi- 
ans on our colonies are agreeable to us; and 
that they need not apprehend the resentment 
of a government with whose views they so 
happily concur?" 

The argument then turned on the chance of 
the colonies severing themselves from the 
Mother Country. This Franklin held to be 
almost an impossibility. 

"Their jealousy of each other is so great, 
that, however necessary a union of the colonies 
has long been for their common defense, and se- 
curity against their enemies, yet they have 



110 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

never been able to effect such a union among 
themselves, nor even to agree in requesting the 
Mother Country to establish it for them," he 
pointed out. "Then can it reasonably be sup- 
posed there is any danger of their uniting 
against their own nation, which protects and 
encourages them, and which it is well-known 
they love more than they love each other?" 

But the opposition were hard to persuade. 
"For all you Americans say of your loyalty, 
and notwithstanding your boasted affection," 
was the astute reply of Attorney General 
Pratt, "you will one day set up for indepen- 
dence." 

"No such idea is entertained by the Ameri- 
cans, or ever will be," persisted Franklin, "un- 
less you grossly abuse them." 

"Very true," was the reply, "but that is just 
what will happen, and will produce the event." 

In view of the unjust taxation and the re- 
sulting revolution which took place so shortly 
after, this conversation, which is historical, is 
more than interesting. 

In August, 1762, Franklin at last set sail 
to return to his home. Peace had not yet been 
declared between France and Great Britain, 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 111 

and it was necessary that the little group of 
ships should be convoyed by a man-o-war. At 
Madeira they stopped to stock themselves with 
the fruits of the fertile islands, grapes, apples, 
peaches, oranges, bananas, and other delicacies 
which were not native to England. The 
weather was dehghtful, warm, and with just 
enough breeze to fill the sails and carry them 
along at a satisfying speed. At the best the 
voyage was a long and tedious one, more espe- 
cially for those who, like Franklin, were thrill- 
ing with the joy of returning home after an 
absence of years. But the tedium was greatly 
reheved during the trip by the visits which the 
calmness of the weather made possible between 
the passengers of the several ships. 

"There were few days in which we could not 
visit from ship to ship," FrankHn wrote to a 
friend, "dining with each other, and on board 
the man-o-war ; . . . this was like traveling in 
a moving village, with aU one's neighbors about 
one." 

Franklin arrived home on the first day of 
November. Here his welcome was all that even 
he could desire. He had slipped into town 
as unostentatiously as possible, probably feel- 



112 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

ing there would be some demonstration, if the 
townsfolk knew the hour of his arrival. And 
so it turned out, for they had prepared a big 
procession to welcome their returning states- 
man, and bring him in state into the city. But 
he could not long remain hidden. He had 
scarcely had time to greet his wife, and to grow 
accustomed to the change which the years had 
made in his only daughter, whom he had left 
a little girl of thirteen, and found now a well 
developed woman of nineteen, when his friends 
began to pour into his house, wringing his 
hands in friendly greeting and filling him with 
happiness at their sincere spirit of welcome. 

For days the visits continued, until the 
FrankHn home seemed to be holding a contin- 
ual reception. Then the day came for Frank- 
lin to present himself in the Assembly. Each 
year of his absence, his loyal and admiring 
people, in spite of the efforts of political ene- 
mies, had elected him to his seat in the Assem- 
bly. When he entered, the House rose to 
welcome him, while the Speaker, acting as the 
personal spokesman of the members as well 
as in his official capacity, made him an address 
of congratulation and thanks. Then they voted 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 113 

him the sum of three thousand pounds partly 
to defray his expenses during his absence. 

These evidences of appreciation and affec- 
tion were very dear to Franklin. In spite of 
his great intellect, his fame as a writer, inventor 
and statesman, he was first and always a man, 
with a warm, friendly nature, which made him 
very sensitive to the f eehng towards him of the 
people whose interests he always kept so near 
his heart. It pleased him greatly to know that 
his long absence had not killed the esteem in 
which he had been held, and made his home- 
coming a very happy one. 

William, his son, did not return to America 
with his father. His affections had become en- 
gaged by a young lady, a native of the West 
Indies. Franklin thought her very agreeable, 
and since he could not induce William to marry 
Miss Stevenson, he gave his consent and ap- 
proval, before leaving England, to William's 
marriage with the girl of his own choice. Two 
or three months after Franklin's return, Wil- 
liam also came to America, bringing with him 
his young bride. William had come to assume 
the post of Governor of New Jersey, which had 
been given him against much opposition on the 



114 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

part of members of the English govermnent. 
But if they expected to tie the illustrious father 
to any government by giving his son an ap- 
pointment, they were sadly lacking in judg- 
ment. 

When the Revolution came, and each had to 
make a definite choice, William stayed with the 
government of Great Britain, while his father 
espoused the cause of the colonies. This led to 
a complete disruption of their affection and 
trust, which lasted for years, and indeed was 
never completely healed. At first, however, 
Franklin was openly pleased at the preference 
shown his son, the more so that his new dignity 
would keep him so near to the family home. 

But even his long absence could not earn for 
Franklin any great period of leisure. The fol- 
lowing Spring he started out on a tour of the 
post-offices. Traveling was difficult and haz- 
ardous in those days, and before he returned 
in November, he had covered a distance of over 
1600 miles. At this time he was fifty-seven 
years old, and had grown quite stout, suffering 
occasionally from attacks of gout, which made 
such a journey the more remarkable. 

Franklin returned to find a new Governor in 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 115 

office, John Penn, nephew of the proprietory. 
This man had begun his term in office by try- 
ing to win the cooperation of the Assembly by 
fair speeches, claiming that the proprietors 
were eager that there should be friendship be- 
tween them, and that everything should be done 
for the comfort and prosperity of the colony. 
The Assembly accepted these fair promises 
eagerly, and showed him every mark of respect 
and consideration they could. Franklin, with 
the rest, accepted these sentiments as frankly 
as they were offered. 

All might have gone well had not an event 
occurred which enraged Frankhn so thoroughly 
that he gave his enemies the opportunity they 
had so long been seeking to work his political 
ruin. A band of settlers, mostly Scotch Irish, 
who had been troubled a good deal by enemy 
Indians, revenged themselves by carrying out 
a cowardly and unwarranted raid on a peaceful 
and friendly Indian village within the boun- 
daries of the colony, torturing and massacring 
some twenty of its innocent inhabitants. Fired 
with righteous indignation, Frankhn wrote a 
pamphlet scourging the cowardly settlers and 
trying to rouse public opinion to the prevention 



116 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

of a repetition of such a deed. But the public 
had suffered so much at the hands of the Indi- 
ans that not even Franklin could move them. 
On the contrary, they resented his taking the 
part of the Indians against the settlers to such 
a degree, that the settlers brazenly started for 
Philadelphia itself, increasing their numbers as 
they went, and all armed with what weapons 
they could get, with the intention of killing 
some one hundred and forty friendly Indians 
living there under the protection of the Gov- 
ernment. 

The city was in a panic. They had no sol- 
diers, and the Governor showed himself a 
weakling and a coward, quite unable to assume 
the direction of affairs in such a crisis. As al- 
ways, it was to Franklin the people turned to 
lead them. The Governor went to his house 
while the danger lasted, and left his host to 
the familiar task of organizing and arming the 
citizens for the defense of their homes. Frank- 
lin soon had a thousand men under arms, and 
when the assailants came near, he so alarmed 
them by telling them how impossible it was 
that they should meet anything but death with 
so large a force opposing them, that he induced 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 117 

them to return to their homes without blood- 
shed. 

But Franklin's success as the protector of 
his city was the sentence of his own political 
beheading. No matter how just his taking up 
the cause of the Indian was, it was impossible 
to overcome the fact that the cause was most 
unpopular. Besides, the Governor, having 
gotten over his fright, resented the humiliation 
he had suffered in running to Franklin for pro- 
tection, and hated him accordingly. This gave 
his enemies a chance to consolidate various fac- 
tions against Franklin, and during a recess 
which was taken by the legislature shortly 
after, they began openly and actively work- 
ing to prevent his reelection. 

His greatest enemies were, of course, among 
the friends of the proprietories. Governor 
Penn's actions soon betrayed the fact that his 
instructions were exactly the same as those of 
his predecessors, to prevent the taxing of the 
Penn lands, and to prevent any law being 
passed that would allow the establishment of a 
colonial army. This so held back the Assem- 
bly in everything it needed to do, as to make its 
work of no value, keeping them busy passing 



118 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

bills only to have the Governor veto them, and 
building up an ever-increasing weight of re- 
sentment. At last Franklin bent all the power 
of his pen to bring the people to the point of 
imploring the King to assume the direct gov- 
ernment of the colony, without the interven- 
tion of the proprietories. He wrote with all the 
brilliance at his command, and when the As- 
sembly again met, presented a petition em- 
bodying this desire to be presented to the King. 
In the meantime, the pubhc had made it plain 
that they were heart and soul for the measure, 
and the Assembly passed it, Franklin himself 
setting upon it the official signature, in the 
place of the alarmed Speaker. 



XII 

FEANKLIN TRIES TO STOP THE STAMP ACT 

This last act of Franklin, bringing to a 
climax the struggle of years against the op- 
pression of the Penns, united the opposition 
solidly against him. His taking up the cause 
of the Indians had, in spite of the wickedness 
of the unprovoked assault upon them, made for 
him a great many enemies. At the following 
election, these various elements of wrath were 
cunningly bound together to bring about 
Franklin's defeat at the polls. Both parties 
worked hard, all day and well into the night. 
A record vote was cast, and Franklin was de- 
feated by twenty-five votes. His own hon- 
esty of purpose and loyalty to the cause of the 
people had brought about his downfall. In this 
he was not alone among great men. 

At last the party had won its way, and after 
fourteen years had ousted the pestilent fellow 
who would persist in exposing their weaknesses 

119 



120 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

and their crimes. Joyfully their members at- 
tended the meeting of the new Assembly, 
cleansed from the presence of their enemy. 
One can imagine their amazement, then, when 
almost the first act of the Assembly was to 
appoint Franklin its agent to England to pre- 
sent the petition to the King to beseech him 
to assume the direct government of the colony. 
Instantly their leader, Dickenson, was on his 
feet, pouring out all his force of invective and 
antagonism against the measure. 

"No man in Pennsylvania is at this time so 
much the object of public dislike as he that has 
been mentioned," he raved. "Why then should 
the Assembly single out from the whole world 
the man most obnoxious to his country to rep- 
resent his country, though he was at the last 
election turned out of the Assembly, where 
he had sat for fourteen years? Why should 
they exert their power in this most disgusting 
manner, and throw pain, terror and displeasure 
into the breasts of their fellow-citizens?" 

He also made an appeal to Franklin (which 
is as amusing as his invective against him, in 
the light of history) to refuse the office. "Let 
him," he said, "from a private station, from a 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 121 

smaller sphere, diffuse, as I think he may, a 
beneficial light; but let him not be made to 
move like a comet, to terrify and distress." 

But the Assembly would not be moved. 
Franklin was offered and accepted the ap- 
pointment, to "alarm, offend and disturb," not 
his country, but those who held his country in 
an unspeakable condition of thralldom. 

Scarcely two months later, Franklin arrived 
in England and took his old rooms in Craven 
Street. He had had a royal send-off. The ex- 
pense of his trip, for which he accepted less 
than half of what had been offered him, was 
raised by the citizens, and three hundred of 
them rode in procession sixteen miles to the 
ship to bid him bon voyage, "filling the sails 
with their good wishes." When the news 
reached Philadelphia that the man than whom 
"no man in Pennsylvania is at this time so 
much the object of public dislike," had safely 
landed, the bells of the churches were rung 
joyously until midnight. 

But when Franklin took up his duties in 
England, he found something of even greater 
and more immediate importance to absorb his 
attention than the mission on which he had been 



122 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

sent. Among other things, he had been in- 
structed to oppose a measure which was to 
come before the British Parliament taxing 
America by means of a revenue stamp. Things 
had gone along so far, however, that all that 
Franklin could do had little effect. The Brit- 
ish government was in desperate need of money 
to pay the cost of the war with France. Al- 
ready her citizens were groaning under the 
excessive taxation with which they were bur- 
dened. The unbounded resources of America 
>vere just coming into recognition. Here was 
an almost untouched field. It must be made to 
yield its share of the funds so urgently needed. 
So the tax on the colonies grew more and more 
in favor, and despite the utmost efforts of 
FrankUn and several other colony agents, the 
fateful bill was passed about the middle of 
March. 

The passing of the Act, in spite of his intense 
disapproval of it, did not harm Franklin as 
much as did an incident which grew out of it. 
Grenville sought out Franklin, and asked him 
for the name of a dependable citizen of Phila- 
delphia to whom he could entrust the giving 
out of the tax stamps. Feeling the reason he 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 123 

gave to be a good one, that it would be much 
better and less objectionable to the peo- 
ple if one of their own fellow-citizens should 
do this, than if some stranger from Great 
Britain should be sent for the purpose, Frank- 
lin innocently gave him the name of a friend 
in Philadelphia, a Mr. Hughes, who was then 
appointed. 

To Franklin's great surprise and dismay, 
the news had no sooner reached Philadelphia, 
than the whole town rose in revolt and con- 
demnation of their former favorite. "Traitor" 
was the lightest term applied to him. He was 
blamed for everything the public could remem- 
ber or invent that was objectionable in their 
relations with the English government. They 
were so violent that friends begged Mrs. 
Franklin to Ay to some other town for safety, 
but she would not forsake her husband's home. 

The public fury was not long directed only 
against Franklin. Soon all the colonies were 
in open revolt. The houses of the collectors 
were sacked and burned, and the officials 
forced to resign their positions. The streets 
were made impassable by mobs, which collected 
to protest against the tax. Even the govern- 



124 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

ing bodies of the colonies allied themselves 
with the rebels, and the collection of the tax 
was made a most hazardous task. At last news 
of the turmoil reached England, where already 
many powerful politicians had been working 
in opposition to the measure. Pitt, whose ill 
health kept him out of public life, still from 
his own house brought his enormous influence 
to bear on the side of the Americans. Soon 
after, the Cabinet was dissolved and a new one 
appointed, one more favorable to the colonies. 
More than all, however, the British public 
began to take active notice of the results of the 
Stamp Act. On the other side of the water, a 
rigorous boycott against English goods was 
being carried out. No cloth was imported, the 
housewife weaving all that might be needed for 
the family. Many new industries were being 
developed, making the people more and more 
independent of the Mother Country. All this, 
in the end, was, of course, a very good thing 
for America, but it was pretty hard on manu- 
facturers and exporters, as well as on the ship- 
ping interests of Great Britain. Great :?tocks 
of goods stood in the warehouses, and ships 
which should have been employed in carrying 
these goods across the ocean, remained idle in 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 125 

the harbor, an expense to their owners instead 
of a means of profit. 

All this, the effect in England and the tur- 
moil in America, opened the way for an inquiry 
into the value of the tax. In February, 1776, 
Franklin was summoned to appear before the 
House of Commons to give his testimony on 
conditions in the Colonies. It was an unparal- 
leled scene. Against the witness were arrayed 
some of the keenest minds in England. Ques- 
tions, relevant and irrelevant, were hurled at 
him in quick succession, from all points of the 
huge chamber. But the soap-maker's son was 
a match for them all. Calm and unafraid, he 
answered their questions with the simple, 
straightforward manner of his printshop or his 
laboratory. When the examination was over, 
the repeal of the Act was practically assured. 

"Would the colonists submit to the Stamp 
Act, if it were modified, and the duties re- 
duced to particulars of small amount?'' he had 
been asked. 

"No," he replied, "they will never submit 
to it." 

"Can anything less than a military force 
carry the Stamp Act into execution?" 



126 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

"I do not see how a military force can be 
applied to that purpose," said Franklin. 
"Suppose a military force is sent into Amer- 
ica, they will find nobody in arms. What are 
they then to do? They cannot force a man 
to take stamps who chooses to do without 
them." 

"If the Act is not repealed, what do you 
think will be the consequences?" asked a mem- 
ber. 

"A total loss of the respect and affection 
the people of America bear to this country, 
and of all the commerce that depends on that 
respect and affection," gravely replied the 
witness. 

"How can the commerce be affected?" 

"The goods they take from Britain are 
either necessaries, mere conveniences, or su- 
perfluities," was the stern answer. "The first, 
as cloth, etc., with a little industry they can 
make at home ; the second they can do without 
until they are able to provide them among 
themselves; and the last, which are much the 
greatest part, they will strike off immedi- 
ately." 

Plain, simple words, but in them lay the 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 127 

whole power of the colonies for self-govern- 
ment, the fear of which had been the cause of 
so many diplomatic mistakes by English 
statesmen. The examination was kept up for 
hours, but the sturdy colonist did not flinch. 
The public wrath, which he knew to be unde- 
served, had not changed his great love for the 
country of his birth. No man had a greater 
knowledge of the problems of his people and 
their relation to Great Britain. Out of his 
love and his knowledge he made his answers, 
explaining the past and forecasting the fu- 
ture, until the men with whom he was sur- 
rounded could find no more questions to ask, 
and in dumb admiration let him go. 

Before the month was ended, the repeal of 
the Stamp Act was passed in the House of 
Commons, and in March the King set his offi- 
cial signature on the document. Philadelphia, 
when the people received the good news, in 
concert with the other colonies, declared a pub- 
lic holiday. With shame they remembered 
their conduct toward Franklin, to whose ef- 
forts they now felt the repeal of the hateful 
tax to be due. They wanted to do something 
to remove the stain they had cast on his fair 



128 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

name. So they formed a great procession, 
which was made a feature of the holiday, and 
in the center they dragged a great float, on 
which was built a huge barge, "forty feet long, 
named FRANKLIN, from which salutes 
were fired as it passed along the streets." 

Soon after all this, Franklin was appointed 
agent for New Jersey, Georgia and Massa- 
chusetts, so that he seemed in England to rep- 
resent the whole of America. With the 
Stamp Act out of the way, he tried again to 
bring about the change which he had gone to 
England to influence, — the putting aside 
of the proprietories, and the assuming of the 
direct government by the Crown. But Eng- 
land herself was in such a turmoil with the 
elections that it seemed a doubtful question 
whether such a change would be beneficial. 
Frankhn's description of the condition of the 
capital brings to mind such similar happen- 
ings of the present day, that it is interesting 
to note. In a letter he says: 

"Even this capital, the residence of the 
King, is now a daily scene of lawless riot and 
confusion. Mobs patrolUng the streets at 
noonday, some knocking all down who will 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 129 

not roar for Wilkes and liberty; courts of jus- 
tice afraid to give justice against him 
(Wilkes) ; coal heavers and porters pulling 
down the houses of coal merchants, that re- 
fuse to give them more wages; sawyers de- 
stroying sawmills; sailors unrigging all the 
outward bound ships, and suffering none to 
sail till merchants agree to raise their pay; 
watermen destroying private boats and 
threatening bridges ; soldiers firing among the 
mobs and killing men, women and children, 
which seems only to have produced a universal 
suUenness, that looks like a great black cloud 
coming on, ready to burst in a general tem- 
pest." 

Not so different from the actions of disaf- 
fected peoples of to-day. Nor was the change 
of administration the only problem before the 
great American statesman. The colonies 
were incensed against and seeking to avoid 
comphance with another Act, that forcing 
colonies in which British troops were stationed 
to provide food and lodging for these troops 
at the public expense. This was called the 
"Billeting Act." New York had been espe- 
cially resentful, so had opened the way for 



130 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

more legislation of the same kind. In 1767, 
on a day when the American agents were 
barred from the House of Commons, Towns- 
hend, the minister who more than any other 
had shown his utter ignorance of the Amer- 
ican temper and point of view, introduced 
bills which were passed a month later, impos- 
ing taxes on wine, oil, fruits, glass, etc., and 
threepence per pound on tea. So straw by 
straw the burden which was so soon to become 
too heavy was laid on the people of the colo- 
nies, by ignorant and inefScient ministers, pre- 
paring the way for the great Revolution which 
was to free the new country for all time froni 
the dominance of the old. 



XIII 

FAMILY AFFAIRS 

In the meantime Franklin was growing 
very weary of his long stay in Europe. He 
had become quite stout, and though he used 
to make his weight a point on which to hang 
a good many jokes at his own expense, it still 
was a great inconvenience to him, as well as 
the cause of some sickness and a great deal 
of discomfort. "Dr. Fatsides" he used to call 
himself, and "the great person." In the Cra- 
ven Street Gazette, a newspaper burlesque 
which he wrote for the amusement of the Stev- 
enson household, while Mrs. Stevenson was 
away on a visit, he refers to himself in many 
amusing ways. 

"We hear that the great person (so called 
from his enormous size) of a certain family 
in a certain district, is greviously affected at 
the late changes, and could hardly be com- 

131 



132 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

forted this morning, though the new ministry 
promised him a roasted shoulder of mutton 
and potatoes for his dinner. It is said that 
the same great person intended to pay his re- 
spects to another great personage this day, at 
St. James, it being coronation-day, hoping 
thereby to amuse his grief; but was prevented 
by an accident. Queen Margaret having car- 
ried off the key of the drawers, so that the 
lady of the bed-chamber could not come at a 
lace shirt for his highness. Great clamors 
were made on this occasion against her maj- 
esty. Other accounts say, that the shirts were 
afterwards found, though too late, in another 
place. 

"A cabinet council was held this afternoon 
at tea, the subject of which was a proposal for 
a more strict observation of the Lord's day. 
The result was a unanimous resolution that 
no meat should be dressed to-morrow; whereby 
the cook and first minister will be at liberty 
to go to church. It seems the cold shoulder 
of mutton and the apple-pie were thought suf- 
ficient for Sunday's dinner. 

" ( Sunday. ) Notwithstanding yesterday's 
solemn order of council, nobody went to 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 133 

church to-day — it seems the great person's 
broad-built bulk lay so long abed, that the 
breakfast was not over until it was too late 
to dress. At least this is the excuse. In fine, 
it seem a vain thing to hope for reformation 
from the example of our great folks. 

"(Monday.) We are credibly informed, 
that the great person dined this day with the 
club at the Cat and Bagpipes in the City, on 
cold round of boiled beef. This, it seems, he 
was under necessity of doing (though he 
rather dislikes beef) because truly the minis- 
ters were to be all abroad somewhere to dine 
on hot roast venison. It is thought, that, if 
the Queen had been at home, he would not 
have been so slighted. And though he shows 
outwardly no sign of dissatisfaction, it is sus- 
pected that he begins to wish for her majesty's 
return. 

"It is currently reported that poor Nanny 
had nothing for dinner in the kitchen, for her- 
self and puss, but the scraping of the bones 
of Saturday's dinner. 

" (Tuesday.) It is remarked that the skies 
have wept every day in Craven Street since 
the absence of the Queen. 



134 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

"This morning a certain great person was 
asked very complaisantly by the mistress of 
the household, if he would choose to have the 
blade bone of Saturday's mutton, that had 
been kept for his dinner, broiled or cold. He 
answered gravely, *If there is any flesh on it, 
it may be broiled; if not, it may as well be 
cold.' Orders were accordingly given for 
broiling it. But when it came to table, there 
was indeed so very little flesh, or rather none 
at all, puss having dined on it yesterday after 
Nanny, that, if our new administration had 
been as good economists as they would be 
thought, the expense of broiling might well 
have been saved." 

Franklin made many loyal and affectionate 
friends during his life in England, and in the 
Widow Stevenson's house in Craven Street 
he was soon counted one of the family circle. 
In such exquisite bits of foolery as the "Ga- 
zette" and in the letters which passed between 
Franklin and Mary Stevenson when he was 
away from London, the affection and inti- 
macy of his relation to the household are 
plainly shown. To Mary Stevenson Franklin 
showed all the love and consideration of a fond 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 135 

father, and she in her turn gave him the utmost 
regard and respect. This happy home life 
made his separation from his family less hard, 
though his first allegiance was always to his 
own. 

It was during this stay in England that 
Sarah, his daughter, now grown to woman- 
hood, met and became interested in Richard 
Bache. Soon this friendship warmed to some- 
thing deeper, and Mrs. Franklin wrote to her 
husband to win his consent to a marriage be- 
tween the young people. Franklin had never 
met Bache, but left the decision to his wife, 
who was much in favor of the alliance. 

He wrote, "If he proves a good husband 
to her, and a good son to me, he shall find me 
as good a father as I can be; but at present 
I suppose you would agree with me that we 
cannot do more than fit her out handsomely 
in clothes and furniture, not exceeding in the 
whole five hundred pounds in value. For the 
rest, they must depend, as you and I did, on 
their own industry and care, as what remains 
in our hands will be barely sufficient for our 
support, and not enough for them, when it 
comes to be divided at our decease." 



136 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

Bache was a merchant, evidently with little 
capital, but this was a small thing to the man 
who had begun his career in Philadelphia with 
only the price of a few rolls and a night's lodg- 
ing in his pocket. He advised the young 
couple to remain in his house, making their 
home with her mother, where they should be 
at no charge for rent in consideration of the 
comfort and protection their presence in the 
house would give her. When at last he met 
his son-in-law, when the latter was on a buying 
trip in England, he became very fond of him, 
giving him two hundred pounds sterling to 
purchase more stock for his shop, and telling 
his wife in a letter that "His behavior here 
has been very agreeable to me. I hope he will 
meet with success." 

Franklin's interest in his son-in-law was 
soon cemented by the birth of a grandson, 
named after his illustrious grandfather, Ben- 
jamin. From the first news of his birth, 
Franklin's letters to his family were full of 
inquiries concerning the little fellow. He 
longed to see him, and was disappointed if 
his letters from home did not devote generous 
space to his favorite's doings and sayings. He 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 137 

had little to complain of in this respect, how- 
ever, for Grandmamma was even more fond 
than was the absent Grandpapa. Franklin 
shows this in a letter to his wife, in which he 
says : 

*'I am glad that your little grandson re- 
covered so soon of his illness, as I see you are 
quite in love with him, and that your happi- 
ness is wrapped up in his; since your whole 
long letter is made up of the history of his 
pretty actions. It was very prudently done 
of you not to interfere, when his mother 
thought fit to correct him; which pleased me 
the more, as I feared, from your fondness of 
him, that he would be too much humored, and 
perhaps spoiled. There is a story of two little 
boys in the street; one was crying bitterly; 
the other came to him to ask what was the 
matter. *I have been,' says he, *for a penny- 
worth of vinegar, and I have broke the glass, 
and spilled the vinegar, and my mother will 
whip me.' *No, she won't whip you,' said the 
other. 'Indeed she will,' says he. *What,' 
says the other, 'have you then got ne'er a 
grandmother?' " 

It was well for Mrs. Franklin that her 



138 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

daughter had so happily settled down with 
her, for she was becoming more and more 
helpless as the result of a paralytic stroke 
which she had suffered soon after Franklin's 
departure for England. It was a great com- 
fort to Franklin to know that she was so well 
cared for, since his return was so delayed. He 
himself was beginning to feel the touch of age, 
and to dread lest he should not be able to re- 
turn if much longer held in England. He 
longed for his wife and children, especially 
for his little "Benny-boy." Again and again 
he made ready to return to his dear America, 
but each time he was delayed by some new 
problem or procrastination on the part of the 
Government. So long as two years before he 
actually set sail, his daughter wrote him of 
their expectations of seeing him. 

"Dear and honored Sir," she wrote, "We 
are all much disappointed at your not coming 
home this Fall. . . . Do not let anything pre- 
vent your coming to your family in the Spring, 
for indeed we want you here very much. . . . 
I suppose he (Bache) has given you an ac- 
count of Ben's manly behavior on his journey 
to New York, where he went in high expecta- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 139 

tion of meeting with you, and would have 
stayed for the September packet, could they 
have had any hopes of your being in her." 

But though Mrs. Franklin's faculties, as 
well as her general health, were failing, she 
was very unwilling to give up the activities 
which had filled her life for so long. Espe- 
cially she struggled to remain the active head 
of the household, though her daughter Sarah 
tried to relieve her of such cares. For a time 
she yielded the reins of government to the 
capable hands of her daughter, but they were 
soon retiu'ned. "It gave my dear Mamma so 
much uneasiness, and the money was given 
to me in a manner which made it impossible 
to save anything by laying in things before- 
hand, so that my housekeeping answered no 
good purpose," wrote Sarah to her father. 

It was about a year later that a letter from 
his son William told him of the death of Mrs. 
Franklin. She had suffered another stroke, 
from which she died, in her seventieth year. 
It was a great blow to FrankUn. He had 
already lost many of his old Philadelphia 
friends by death, and now he began to won- 
der if it would not seem more strange there 



140 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

when he returned than he found it in England, 
where he had so many dear and close friends. 

Indeed, Franklin's life in England was 
really a very happy one, in spite of the long- 
ing for his family, and his many political ene- 
mies. His interests were so varied and his 
accompUshments so broad that no man could 
have had a wider or more fascinating circle 
of acquaintances. At one time we find him 
taking a keen interest in the silk industry, 
trying to promote the raising of silkworms 
and the manufacture of silk materials in 
America. With his usual thoroughness, he 
investigated every phase of the business, and 
convinced himself that it could be a profitable 
thing for his own country. He sent silk- 
worms to friends and explained the ways to 
care for them. He told them how to wind the 
silk from the cocoons, and had them send the 
raw silk to him to have spun in England. 

He found time to notice that oil spilled on 
water stilled its movement, and wrote long 
letters suggesting the invention of some 
method of using the liquid for the protection 
of ships during storms. He went so far as 
to carry oil in small quantities with him on 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 141 

windy days, with which to experiment on 
rough water. At last, during a wind storm, 
he demonstrated his discovery before some 
naval officers and members of the Royal Soci- 
ety at Portsmouth, who were most likely to 
have use for such knowledge. His keen sense 
of observation is shown in this incident, for 
his attention was first drawn to the fact by 
seeing the result of greasy water thrown over- 
board by the kitchen boy on a ship on which 
he was traveUing. 

His charting of the Gulf Stream was also 
of great benefit to shipmasters. Their igno- 
rance of it had meant much lost time on trips 
from England to America, the current carry- 
ing fiui:her back than a light wind could take 
them forward. FrankHn mapped out a course 
which would carry them to New York without 
this disadvantage, and sent it to Falmouth for 
their use. 

These and many other interesting and use- 
ful discoveries, made possible by his remark- 
able habit of observation of small things and 
the brilliance of his mind, brought him great 
respect and popularity with scientific men of 
all nations. Night after night he dined with 



142 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

some one or another of his many friends. His 
week-ends were spent with other friends at 
their delightful coimtry homes. Never was a 
man more sought after. His great scientific 
knowledge, his personal charm, his delightful 
sense of wit and humor, his position as the 
representative statesman of America, and 
perhaps more than all — ^the simplicity and nat- 
lu'alness and friendliness of his disposition, 
with his great understanding of human na- 
ture, — all these combined to make him the cen- 
ter of a great host of admiring and affection- 
ate friends. 



XIV 

THE POLITICAL POT BOILS OYER 

Meanwhile, politically things were going 
from bad to worse. Under the excuse that 
an agent could not be appointed by resolu- 
tion of the Assembly, but only by the passage 
of a bill (which would have to be signed by 
the Governor), Franklin was refused recog- 
nition as the agent for Massachusetts. This 
did no great harm to the colony, since Frank- 
lin handled its affairs quite as well afterwards, 
but it was a public affront to the great states- 
man. 

In the colonies the feeling against the taxa- 
tion on imports was growing daily more bit- 
ter, and talk of independence more and more 
popular. Franklin implored the people not 
to be hasty in their actions, but to wait quietly 
until the reaction in England against the 
American boycott should bring about the re- 

143 



IM FAMOUS AMERICAT^S 

peal of the taxes. Indeed, the loss was so 
great to exporters, especially the East India 
Company, whose warehouses were so stored 
with tea which would normally have been con- 
sumed in the colonies that their financial 
troubles threatened to involve the greatest 
money institutions in England, that Franklin 
felt justified in hoping that the way would 
soon be opened to a complete settlement of 
the dijBPerences between the two countries. 

Frankhn's great love for England, the 
country in which he had spent so many years 
of very happy living, and where he had made 
so many charming friends, made him hope 
that some plan would be found to prevent a 
rupture between the old country and the new, 
but in his heart he must have felt the hope to 
be groundless. Once born, the thought of in- 
dependence gained strength rapidly, and noth- 
ing Franklin did could possibly stem the swell- 
ing tide. 

The Boston Tea Party, and the Hutchinson 
letters hurried matters in the path toward 
their logical conclusion. Franklin indig- 
nantly condemned the sending of troops to 
Boston. He was told in answer that the 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 145 

course had been suggested by certain govern- 
ment officials in America, all Americans. He 
demanded proof. Some days later he was 
shown letters from Lieutenant Governor 
Hutchinson, Secretary Oliver, and others, 
asking that troops be sent as a necessary meas- 
ure for the welfare of the country. 

Franklin asked permission to retain the let- 
ters and send them to certain public men in 
Massachusetts. He hoped to prove through 
this action that the British Government was 
not to blame for the sending of the troops, 
and so bring about a more kindly feeling be- 
tween the colonists and England. Permis- 
sion was given him to send them on condition 
that only certain people should see them, that 
no copies should be printed, and that no pub- 
lication of their contents should be made. All 
this Franklin promised to observe, and the let- 
ters were sent. 

But although Franklin in several later let- 
ters insisted that his pledge not to have the 
letters printed be kept, the Assembly did 
print them and made them public, feeling that 
the private knowledge of their contents would 
do no good, while the public knowledge was 



146 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

necessary to make use of them. They were 
led to this action by the claim that other copies 
of the letters had been sent to another member 
of the Assembly direct from England. This 
Franklin believed to be impossible, but the 
statement was seized upon by the Assembly 
as an excuse to free them from the promise 
made by FrankUn. The matter was discussed 
in the Assembly, and the angry members 
passed a resolution petitioning the King to re- 
move Hutchinson and Oliver from office. The 
petition was sent to Frankhn to present. 

The publication of the letters brought about 
a great storm of protest and discussion. No 
one knew who had obtained them, who had 
sent them to America, or who had there re- 
ceived them. The man to whom they had 
originally been written was dead. Accusa- 
tions were bandied about, and a serious duel 
was fought between two of those under great- 
est suspicion. Learning of this duel, Frank- 
lin immediately issued a statement to the 
effect that he had secured the letters and sent 
them, but refused to divulge the name of the 
man from whom he had obtained them. He 
felt under no blame in the matter, since the 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 147 

letters were not personal ones, but written by- 
Government officials and dealing with public 
matters, and had been received by him as 
Agent for the House of Representatives of 
Massachusetts. 

The episode was, however, made use of by 
his enemies to inflict the greatest humiliations 
upon him. He was deprived of his office of 
Deputy Postmaster. He was notified that 
the hearing of the petition regarding the re- 
moval of the offending officials would be held 
at the Cockpit, instead of the matter being 
considered in the privacy of the King's cabi- 
net, as was usual. Hutchinson and Oliver 
were represented by counsel. Franklin also 
secured counsel. When the hearing opened, 
the place was packed with his enemies, who 
had come to gloat over his humiliation. Wed- 
derburn, counsel for the Governor and his sec- 
retary, poured on Franklin's head such a 
storm of invective and insult that it was obvi- 
ous that the whole proceeding had been ar- 
ranged, not to defend the accused, but in order 
to demean the man who was such a powerful 
enemy to the oppressors of his country. 
Never had Franklin had greater need to call 



148 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

on his marvelous faculty of self-control as he 
did on that day. He must have been an im- 
pressive figure, standing "close to the fire- 
place, in front of which, though at some dis- 
tance, the members of the Privy Council were 
seated at a table. The Doctor was dressed in 
a full dress suit of spotted Manchester velvet, 
and stood conspicuously erect, without the 
smallest movement of any part of his body. 
The muscles of his face had been previously 
composed, so as to afford a placid, tranquil 
expression of countenance, and he did not suf- 
fer the shghtest alteration of it to appear dur- 
ing the continuance of the speech, in which 
he was so harshly and so improperly treated." 
Needless to say, the petition was dismissed. 

"I have never before been so sensible of the 
power of a good conscience," Frankhn told a 
friend next morning. "For if I had not con- 
sidered the thing for which I have been so 
much insulted as one of the best actions of my 
life, and what I should certainly do again in 
the same circumstances, I could not have sup- 
ported it." 

But though Franklin refrained from any 
defense of himself after this pubhc outrage. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 149 

feeling the affront to be one directed toward 
the Assembly as much as toward himself, a 
significant circumstance in connection with 
the "suit of spotted velvet" which he wore on 
that occasion is recorded by his friend, Dr. 
Bancroft. The occasion was the signing of 
the treaty of aUiance with France, which was 
to result in the winning of the war of inde- 
pendence by the new republic. 

"When Dr. Franklin had dressed himself 
for the day," said Dr. Bancroft, "I observed 
that he wore the suit in question, which I 
thought the more extraordinary, as it had been 
laid aside for many months. This I noticed to 
Mr. Deane ; and soon after when a letter came 
from Mr. Gerard, stating he was so unwell, 
from a cold, that he wished to defer coming to 
Paris to sign the treaty, until the next eve- 
ning, I said to Mr. Deane, *Let us see whether 
the Doctor will wear the same suit of clothes 
to-morrow; if he does, I shall suspect he is 
influenced by a recollection of the treatment 
which he received at the Cockpit.' The mor- 
row came, and the same clothes were worn 
again, and the treaties signed." 

The suit was laid aside again after this great 



150 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

event, to be worn once more, much later, at 
the signing of the peace treaty with England. 

It would seem as though the affair of the 
Hutchinson letters had ended Franklin's use« 
fulness in England, but for another year he 
stayed at his post, striving to avert the war 
which was growing more imminent each day 
and attempting to reconcile the two countries. 
But despite everything he could do, the an- 
tagonism of the Government became more and 
more definite, until at last Franklin saw that 
he could no longer serve his country by re- 
maining in England, and he set sail for home, 
arriving in Philadelphia on May 5, 1775. 

Almost seventy years of age, Franklin 
might well have contended that his long years 
of service to the people entitled him to the rest 
and leisure to which he seemed always looking 
forward. But the times were difficult and 
critical ones. Before Franklin had been 
twenty-four hours in Philadelphia he was 
unanimously chosen delegate to the new Con- 
tinental Congress. Two weeks before, the 
battles of Concord and Lexington had been 
fought. War had not actually been declared, 
yet it was actively in effect. Boston was be- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 15l 

sieged. There was much to do, and the brains 
and experience of such a man as FrankHn 
could not be spared. 

Nor was this all. Almost immediately after 
his return, he was appointed Postmaster Gen- 
eral. As chairman of a committee on postal 
matters he had completely reorganized the 
postal system, putting into effect the founda- 
tion of the present system. Fortunately for 
him, this last appointment carried a salary of 
one thousand pounds a year; his financial af- 
fairs had been by no means as prosperous as 
if he had stayed in America, and on several 
occasions he had lamented his decreasing re- 
sources. He was placed on other committees 
— on the committee of safety, and later was 
again elected member of the Assembly. This 
last he would not accept, since he would have 
had to take the oath of allegiance, and this he 
refused to do. 

Two months later. General Washington 
took charge of the American armies, and 
Franklin and two others, a committee of Con- 
gress, rode to Cambridge to confer with him 
on the support and regulation of the army. 
They made the journey from Philadelphia in 



152 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

thirteen days, Franklin, in spite of his age, 
seemingly bearing the trip excellently. In a 
letter to Dr. Priestly written the day before 
they started, he pointed out: 

"Britain, at the expense of three millions, 
has killed one hundred and fifty Yankees, 
which is twenty thousand pounds a head. And 
at Bunker's Hill she gained a mile of ground, 
half of which she lost again. During the same 
time, sixty thousand children have been born 
in America. From these data his (Dr. Price, 
to whom he was sending the message through 
Dr. Priestly) mathematical head will easily 
calculate the time and expense necessary to 
kill us all and to conquer our vast territory." 

During the following March, Frankhn and 
two others as a committee set out on another 
journey, this time to go into Canada to try 
to eflpect an alliance with the Canadian Gov- 
ernment. It was a terrible journey, espe- 
cially for a man of Franklin's age. It was 
also a useless one. Already the small band 
of colonists who had stood against the British 
had been scattered, and the public spirit was 
such it was soon evident that nothing was to be 
gained there. So back to Philadelphia went 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 153 

Franklin, half sick with gout, and from the 
fatigue of the difficult traveling. It had taken 
ten weeks to cover the trip. 

Immediately on his return, however, he was 
again set to work. This time it was the Dec- 
laration of Independence which was under 
consideration. FrankUn was one of a com- 
mittee of four, with Thomas Jefferson as 
chairman. Jefferson drafted it, and its pro- 
visions were discussed and changed in com- 
mittee sittings. It was a serious and impor- 
tant document, and the weight of its conse- 
quence was heavy on the little group of men 
who were its sponsors. Together they la- 
bored over it, suggesting such changes as 
seemed wise. Only Jefferson resented this 
departure from the original wording, and 
Franklin, noticing this, relieved the tension by 
telling the inimitable story of the hatter. 

"When I was a journeyman printer," he 
said, "one of my companions, an apprentice 
hatter, having served out his time, was about 
to open shop for himself. His first concern 
was to have a handsome signboard with a 
proper inscription. He composed it in these 
words: 'John Thompson, Hatter, makes and 



154 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

sells hats for ready money,' with a jSgiire of 
a hat subjoined. But he thought he would 
submit it to his friends. The first thought the 
word ^Hatter' tautologous, because the words 
*makes hats' showed he was a hatter. It was 
struck out. The next observed that the word 
'makes' might be omitted, because his custom- 
ers would not care who made the hats; if 
good and to their minds they would buy, by 
whomsoever made. He struck it out. A third 
thought the words 'for ready money' were use- 
less, as it was not the custom to sell on credit. 
They were struck out, and the inscription now 
stood, 'John Thompson sells hats.' 'Sells 
hats?' said his next friend; 'why, no one will 
expect you to give them away! What, then, 
is the use of that word?' It was stricken out, 
and 'hats' followed, since there was one painted 
on the board. So his inscription was ulti- 
mately reduced to 'John Thompson,' with the 
figure of a hat subjoined." 

When the historic document was presented 
to Congress and ready for adoption, Franklin 
treated the solemn conclave with another flash 
of wit. John Hancock made the remark, 
when the signatures were about to be affixed. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 155 

"We must be unanimous; there must be no 
pulling different ways; we must all hang to- 
gether." 

"Yes," replied Franklin, "we must indeed 
all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall 
aU hang separately." 

During this same month a convention was 
formed to draw up a constitution for the In- 
dependent State of Pennsylvania. Frankhn 
was chosen to be its President. They sat for 
two months, during which time a constitution 
and plan of legislature were drawn up to pre- 
sent to the people. The last act of this con- 
stitutional convention was to pass the follow- 
ing resolution: 

"Resolved, That the thanks of this conven- 
tion be given to the President, for the honor 
he has done it by filling the chair during the 
debates on the most important parts of the 
bill of rights and frame of government, and 
for his able and disinterested advice thereon." 

One can imagine how gratifying these evi- 
dences of respect and admiration must have 
been to the man who, only a few months be- 
fore, had been made the target for Wedder- 
burn's insults in the Cockpit. 



XV 

FKANKLIN's work in FRANCE 

It is not possible or necessary in a short 
work such as this, to go into the events of the 
War for Independence, except as they di- 
rectly are concerned with Benjamin Frankhn. 
It was in keeping with the breadth and deci- 
sion of his character that this man, whose love 
for England had been so great, and who had 
done more than any other of his countrymen 
to avoid a break and try to bring about a 
reconciliation, should now become the staunch- 
est supporter of his country's poKcy of inde- 
pendence. In spite of the many discouraging 
events of the early part of the war, his cer- 
tainty in the outcome seems never to have 
faltered. 

Congress soon saw that it would be neces- 
sary to secure the aid of foreign powers to 
provide men and material for the great strug- 

156 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 157 

gle. Silas Deane, who was first sent to 
France, failed sadly in his mission there, and 
jsince this seemed a more favorable court than 
any other, Franklin, with two colleagues, was 
appointed by Congress to the post of Ambas- 
sador to that country. This was a wise choice. 
At seventy Franklin was still a healthy, sturdy 
man ; no other American had had the wide ex- 
perience of foreign diplomacy which had 
fallen to his lot, as well as the opportunity to 
follow the most intimate details of the prep- 
aration for war in his own country. He knew 
the needs of Congress, and he knew the ways 
of courts and ministries. He accepted his ap- 
pointment with his familiar habit of joking. 

"I am old and good for nothing," Parton 
tells us he whispered to Dr. Rush, "but, as 
the storekeepers say of their remnants of 
cloth, *I am but a fag end and you may have 
me for what you please.' " 

Franklin seems to have lost none of his de- 
lightful humor with age. His reply to Lord 
Howe, who had a sincere feeling of friendship 
for the colonies, and who expressed this to 
Franklin, is charming in its naivete. 

"I feel for America as for a brother," said 



158 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

Lord Howe, "and if America should fail, I 
should feel and lament it like the loss of a 
brother." 

"My Lord," was Franklin's aiiswer, "we 
will do our utmost endeavors to spare your 
Lordship that mortification." 

Franklin, with his grandson Temple, who 
was to be his secretary, and his little name- 
sake, Benjamin Bache, for whom he wished 
the advantages of the French schools, arrived 
in France on the 28th of November, 1776. 
The Reprisal, on which they sailed, was a six- 
teen gun, fast sloop, which had been captured 
from the British. It was a hazardous jour- 
ney. Several times they were chased by Brit- 
ish ships, but got away by reason of their 
superior speed. In their turn just before 
sighting the French coast, they met with two 
brigantines with full cargo. These they cap- 
tured and took into the French harbor. 

The weather had been rough, and Franklin 
suffered a good deal in consequence, so that 
he was forced to rest for some days before 
proceeding inland. Lee and Deane, his col- 
leagues, were already in France. Franklin 
was cheered to find in the harbor "several ves- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 159 

sels laden with military stores for America, 
just ready to sail." His feeling of confidence 
in the outcome of the war is shown in a letter 
which he wrote shortly after he arrived in 
Paris: 

"You are too early, hussy, as well as too 
saucy, in calling me rebel," he wrote to Mrs. 
Thompson. "You should wait for the event, 
which will determine whether it is a rebelUon, 
or only a revolution. Here the ladies are 
more civil; they call us ^les insurgensf a char- 
acter which usually pleases them." 

The Enghsh Government, familiar with the 
great gifts of the American diplomat, was 
furious at his presence in France. But the 
French people gave him a royal welcome. 
They called him "the ideal of a patriarchal 
republic and of idyllic simplicity. They ad- 
mired him because he did not wear a wig ; they 
lauded his spectacles; they were overcome 
with enthusiasm as they contemplated his 
great cap of martin fur, his scrupulously white 
linen, and the quaint simplicity of his brown 
Quaker raiment of colonial make." 

To save the French court embarrassment, 
Frankhn chose to settle himself some way 



160 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

from Paris, at Passy. From this place he con- 
ducted the business of the young United 
States of America. To him came those in- 
trepid adventurers, Conynham, Wickes, and 
others, who under his direction harried the 
British ships at sea, capturing and taking into 
harbor some vessels, and burning others, accu- 
mulating in the process more prisoners than 
they knew well what to do with. Franklin 
stood as a buffer between these men and those 
officers of the French Government who were 
forced to make some show of objecting to their 
ports being used in these warlike proceedings. 
But no one could handle such a situation 
better than the shrewd Franklin. He knew 
that the French protest was almost entirely a 
surface one, and by many tricks he kept the 
peace, while the British thundered their de- 
nunciations at the French ministers. 

Franklin soon became greatly disturbed at 
the needs of American prisoners in England. 
Though not intentionally cruel, there was 
much distress among them owing to neglect, 
and Franklin entered into correspondence 
with his friend, a most humanitarian English- 
(nan, named David Hartley. To him he 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 161 

wrote begging that an arrangement be made 
whereby he might be permitted to send a com- 
missioner to England to look after the com- 
forts of the prisoners of war, and to try to 
effect some basis of exchange for English pris- 
oners. 

Hartley responded enthusiastically. More, 
he set in effect a scheme to raise funds in Eng- 
land, with which to buy comforts for the 
Americans. The people of England, who 
were in general throughout the entire war 
friendly to America, gave liberally. The mat- 
ter of exchange of prisoners, however, dragged 
woefully. For almost two years, from Octo- 
ber 14, 1777, to March 30, 1779, when the 
first exchange ship sailed, Franklin hammered 
at the diplomatic doors of Great Britain with- 
out success. In the meantime. Hartley had 
exerted himself to the utmost in the Amer- 
ican cause. 

During the first year of Franklin's service 
in France, American affairs wore a gloomy 
and forbidding aspect. The alliance with the 
French, which he was so anxious to effect, be- 
came more and more difficult. As news of the 
crises in America leaked into Europe, France 



162 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

grew less friendly. Franklin dared not risk 
a refusal of aid by a premature application, 
and he determined to await a better chance. 

"In December, 1777, there broke a great 
and sudden rift in the solid cloudiness," says 
Morse. "First there came a vague rumor of 
good news; then a post-chaise drove into Dr. 
Franklin's courtyard, and from it hastily 
alighted Jonathan Loring Austin, whom Con- 
gress had sent express from Philadelphia. 
The American group of envoys and agents 
were all there, and at the sound of wheels they 
ran out and eagerly surroimded the chaise. 

" 'Sir,' exclaimed Franklin, 'is Philadelphia 
taken?' 

" 'Yes, sir,' replied Austin, and Franklin 
clasped his hands and turned to reenter the 
house. 

"But Austin cried that he bore greater 
news; that General Burgoyne and his whole 
army were prisoners of war. At the words 
the glorious sunshine burst forth. Beau- 
marchais sprang into his carriage and drove 
madly for the city to spread the story. The 
envoys hastily read and wrote ; in a few hours 
Austin was again on the road, this time bound 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 163 

for Versailles, to tell the great tidings. Soon 
all Paris got the news and burst into trium- 
phant rejoicing." 

From this moment the French attitude be- 
came more friendly, and after much labor on 
Franklin's part, a treaty of alliance of amity 
and commerce was prepared, and on the fol- 
lowing February 6th was signed by the 
French and American representatives. It 
was on this occasion that Frankhn wore the 
"Cockpit" suit, which he must have taken to 
France with him with some such purpose in 
mind. 

It was on March 23d that France set her 
formal mark of recognition and approval on 
the new Republic. On that day the American 
envoys were formally received by the King as 
accepted representatives of a foreign and 
friendly country. 

It was extremely unfortunate for Franklin 
that he should have had to serve with him a 
man of such a disagreeable character as 
Arthur Lee. This man's contemptible atti- 
tude toward the venerable Franklin, who 
above all things valued peace and amity, is re- 
flected in a letter which was drawn from the 



164 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

Doctor by repeated insulting epistles sent him 
by Lee. 

"It is true," he wrote, "that I have omitted 
answering some of your letters, in which you, 
with very magisterial airs, schooled and docu- 
mented me, as if I had been one of your domes- 
tics. I saw in the strongest light the impor- 
tance of our living in decent civihty toward 
each other, while our great affairs are impend- 
ing here. I saw your jealous, suspicious, 
malignant, and quarrelsome temper, which 
was daily manifesting itself against Mr. 
Deane and almost every other person you had 
any concern with. I, therefore, passed your 
affronts in silence, did not answer, but burnt 
your angry letters, and received you, when I 
next saw you, with the same civility, as if you 
had never wrote them. ... Of all things, I 
hate altercation." 

This man's overbearing and vindictive tem- 
per had much to do with the undeserved dis- 
grace which fell upon Deane, and was the 
source of a great deal of annoyance and even 
of some danger to Franklin. 

But in spite of the many complaints which 
Lee was always sending to Congress, their 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 165 

confidence in Franklin was undisturbed. Con- 
ditions becoming very uncomfortable for the 
commissioners by reason of this internal dis- 
agreement, each wrote to various members of 
Congress suggesting that the business of the 
United States could be much better managed 
if a single envoy to the court of France should 
be chosen, and the commission be recalled. 
Approving this, on October 28, 1778, Con- 
gress appointed Frankhn Minister Plenipo- 
tentiary to France. 

This mark of confidence was very welcome 
to the aged Doctor. He was most honorably 
received by the King, who freely expressed his 
pleasure at the appointment. Franklin was 
careful to observe the obligations of his new 
position, as well as to take advantage of its 
privileges. Every week he attended the royal 
levee, as did all the other ministers, being care- 
ful to miss no opportunity of speaking of 
America's gratitude and good will toward the 
French nation. His diplomacy was always of 
the personal kind, feeling that in making 
friends for himself, he was making friends for 
his country. 

The glimpses we get in his letters of his way 



166 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

of living are interesting. "You wish to know- 
how I hve," he wrote to Mrs. Stevenson. "It 
is a fine house, situated in a neat village, on 
high ground, half a mile from Paris, with a 
large garden to walk in. I have abundance of 
acquaintances, dine abroad six days in seven. 
Sundays I reserve to dine at home, with such 
Americans as pass this way; and then I have 
my grandson Ben, with some other American 
children from the same school. 

"If being treated with all the politeness of 
France, and the apparent respect and esteem 
of all ranks, from the highest to the lowest, 
can make a man happy, I ought to be so. In- 
deed, I have nothing to complain of but a httle 
too much business." 

To his sister, who had written him of her 
pleasure in hearing of "your glorious achieve- 
ments in the political way, as well as in the 
favor of the ladies (since you have rubbed 
off the mechanic rust and commenced com- 
plete courtier) who claim from you the tribute 
of an embrace, and it seems you do not com- 
plain of the tax as a very great penance," he 
wrote : 

"Perhaps few strangers in France have had 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 167 

the good fortune to be so universally popular ; 
but the story you allude to, mentioning 'me- 
chanic rust,' is totally without foundation. I 
hope, however, to preserve, while I stay, the 
regard you mention of the French ladies; for 
their society and conversation, when I have 
time to enjoy them, are extremely agreeable." 

His own declaration to Madame Helvetius, 
his chief favorite, a charming, witty French- 
woman of sixty, however, seems to belie this 
modest salve to his sister's New England 
prejudices. He writes humorously: 

*'Mr. Frankhn never forgets any party at 
which Madame Helvetius is expected. He 
even believes that if he were engaged to go to 
Paradise this morning, he would pray for per- 
mission to remain on earth until half -past-one, 
to receive the embrace nromised him at the 
Turgots!" 

Fortunate Franklin, that he was always 
able to form such devoted, affectionate friend- 
ships, to offset the troubles which the enmity 
and jealousy of lesser men than himself con- 
tinually brought into his less private life. The 
accusations and annoyances visited on him 
through Lee during his whole residence in 



168 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

France, and later, the attacks this same man 
made on his aged associate when he returned 
to America, tried even Frankhn's great phil- 
osophy. Of the John Paul Jones- Arthur Lee- 
Captain Landais quarrel we have no space to 
treat. But all these brought their own reac- 
tion on Dr. FrankUn, forcing from him a 
statement which cannot but touch our sympa- 
thy: 

"It is hard that I, who give no trouble to 
others with my quarrels," he said, "should be 
plagued with all the perversities of those who 
think fit to wrangle with one another." 



XVI 

CLOSING EVENTS OF A BUSY LIFE 

The difficulties of financing and carrying on 
the War, and the vexations which arose during 
the arrangements of the conditions of the 
peace treaty, are too well known to have a 
place on these pages. Franklin's long polit- 
ical career had prepared him for the criticisms 
which fell to the lot of the negotiators. Hav- 
ing in mind the verse, "Blessed are the peace- 
makers," he writes humorously: 

"I have never yet known of a peace made 
that did not occasion a great deal of popular 
discontent, clamor, and censure on both sides 
... so that the blessing promised to peace- 
makers, I fancy, relates to the next world, for 
in this they seem to have a greater chance of 
being cursed." 

Franklin was seventy-six years of age when 
the preliminary articles of peace were signed 

169 



170 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

in Paris. He immediately appealed to Con- 
gress to recall him and send his successor. But 
there was too much of importance yet to be 
done to lose his services. For three years 
more he was kept in France, making commer- 
cial treaties with other European powers, and 
in general fixing the standing of the infant 
United States of America in the diplomatic 
world. At length peace was definitely signed, 
and Jefferson having in the meantime arrived 
to help Frankhn with the many duties of his 
ofiice, Franklin again begged leave to return. 
This time the aged diplomat, who saw some 
humor in constantly being refused by Con- 
gress that which his enemies had tried to take 
from him by force, the resignation of his posi- 
tion, was relieved of his charge and given per- 
mission to return. 

His successor, Jefferson, was so impressed 
with the evidences of affection and regard with 
which he saw his aged fellow-countryman sur- 
rounded, that when asked: "Are you, sir, the 
one who is to replace Doctor Franklin?" he 
modestly replied: "No one can replace him, 
sir ; I am only his successor." 

Morse gives us a striking picture of his tak- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 171 

ing leave of the France he had grown to love. 
He writes: 

"When at last Franklin took his farewell of 
the much-loved land of France, the distin- 
guished attentions which he received left no 
doubt of the admiration in which he was held. 
Indeed, many persons pressed him to remain 
in France, and three oflfered him homes in 
their own famiUes, teUing him that not even 
in America could he expect esteem and love 
so unalloyed as he enjoyed in France, and 
warning him also that he might not survive 
the voyage. But he said: 

" *The desire of spending the little re- 
mainder of my life with my family is so strong 
as to determine me to try at least whether I 
can bear the motion of the ship. If not, I 
must get them to set me ashore somewhere in 
the channel and content myself to die in Eu- 
rope.' " 

"When the day of departure from Passy 
came, it seemed," said Jefferson, "as if the vil- 
lage had lost its patriarch. His infirmities 
rendered the motion of a carriage painful to 
him, and the King therefore placed at his dis- 
posal one of the Queen's litters, which bore him 



172 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

by easy stages to the sea coast. He carried 
with him the customary comphmentary por- 
trait of the King ; but it was far beyond the or- 
dinary magnificence, for it was framed in a 
double circle of four hundred and eight dia- 
monds, and was of unusual cost and beauty. 
On July 18 he arrived at Havre, and crossed 
the channel to take ship at Portsmouth. The 
British Government ordered that the effects of 
Dr. Frankhn's party should be exempt from 
the usual examination at the customs house." 

Many old friends came to see him, and wish 
him a pleasant and safe voyage. Then he set 
sail for home, arriving in Philadelphia just 
seven weeks later, rested and braced up by the 
trip, and full of joy at the sight of his beloved 
country and his family and friends. He was 
seventy-nine years of age, and though so in- 
firm before leaving France, he was able to use 
the general conveyances by the time he reached 
home. A great crowd of his admiring fellow 
citizens met him at the wharf, giving him as 
royal a welcome home as he had had an affec- 
tionate and regretful parting when starting 
out. 

"My son-in-law came in a boat for us," he 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 173 

wrote. "We landed at Market Street wharf, 
where we were received by a crowd of people 
with huzzas, and accompanied with acclama- 
tions quite to my door." 

*'I am now in the bosom of my family," he 
wrote again, "and find four new little prat- 
tlers, who cling about the knees of their grand- 
papa, and afford me great pleasure." 

At last it seemed as though the aged states- 
man had secured the leisure and rest to which 
he had looked forward through so many years 
of public life. But it was not to last for long. 
Almost immediately after his return, he was 
elected to the State Council of which he was 
made President. To friends he wrote in No- 
vember : 

"It was my intention to avoid all public 
business. But I had not firmness enough to 
resist the unanimous desire of my country- 
folks; and I find myself harnessed again in 
their service for another year. They en- 
grossed the prime of my life. They have eaten 
my flesh, and seem resolved now to pick my 
bones." 

Fortunately for him, his affairs in Philadel- 
phia had improved so much that they pro- 



174 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

vided him with an adequate income. During 
the entire time he served on the Council, to 
which he was reelected each year until he be- 
came so old that he refused the office, he de- 
voted the whole of the income from his office 
to the pubHc good. He found much time for 
the pleasing occupations of age, of which he 
wrote to Mrs. Hewson in this vein: 

"I am turning my garden, in the midst of 
which my house stands, into grass plots and 
gravel walks. Cards we sometimes play here, 
in the long winter evenings; I have indeed, 
now and then, a little compunction in reflect- 
ing that I spend time so idly; but another re- 
flection comes to relieve me, whispering, 'You 
know that the soul is immortal; why then 
should you be a niggard of a httle time, when 
you have a whole eternity before you?' So, 
being easily convinced, and, like other reason- 
able creatures, satisfied with a small reason, 
when it is in favor of doing what I have a mind 
to, I shuffle the cards again, and begin an- 
other game." 

One suspects that so great a departure from 
the admonitions of "Poor Richard" is due to 
the knowledge of a long life of hard work ac- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 175 

complished, rather than to a lessening ideal 
of the value of time. 

He soon found that the six grandchildren 
were not always a blessing, for they inter- 
fered with his privacy to such an extent that 
he began the building of a library for himself 
as an enlargement of his house. The floor of 
the library was arranged to be level with the 
floor of his bedroom, so that he could get eas- 
ily from one room to another. This enabled 
him to "WTite without the danger of inter- 
ruption. 

This does not mean that he resented the 
occupation of his house by his daughter and 
her family. Far from it, his letters are full 
of the gratiflcation he felt that they should be 
so devoted to him. They were his first con- 
sideration and his greatest pride. Never was 
he too busy to write his friends abroad of Tem- 
ple's farming and Ben's college life. These 
were always his favorites, especially since he 
had become estranged from his own son 
through a division of loyalty during the war, 
William having espoused the English cause. 

In Mary Hewson, the Mary Stevenson of 
Craven Street days, who had lost her husband 



176 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

some years before, Franklin found another 
daughter. He induced her to bring her little 
family of children to Philadelphia, and 
through the last days of his life she was much 
with him, helping Sarah to care for him and 
minister to his comfort and amusement. 

In May, 1787, at eighty-one years of age, 
Franklin was appointed member from Phila- 
delphia to the convention which framed the 
Constitution of the United States, and as was 
entirely fit, was one of the signatories of that 
famous document. It is told of him, that as 
the last members were signing, the aged Doc- 
tor, "looking toward the President's chair, 
at the back of which a rising sun happened to 
be painted, observed to a few members near 
him that painters had found it difficult to dis- 
tinguish in their art a rising from a setting 
sun. *I have,' he said, 'often and often in the 
course of the session looked at that behind the 
President, without being able to tell whether 
it was rising or setting, but now at length I 
have the happiness to know that it is a rising 
and not a setting sun.' " 

Franklin was a master of simile. Perhaps 
that was why he was so quick to see the sig- 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 177 

nificance of a symbol. When he was in 
France, he wrote his daughter his opinion of 
the choice of the bald eagle as the American 
symbol. He said: 

"For my own part, I wish the bald eagle 
had not been chosen as the representative of 
our country; he is a bird of bad moral char- 
acter; he does not get his living honestly; you 
may have seen him perched on some dead tree, 
where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches 
the labors of the fishing hawk; and, when the 
diligent bird has at last taken a fish, and is 
bearing it to his nest for the support of his 
mate and young ones, the bald eagle pursues 
him, and takes it from him. With all this in- 
justice he is never in good case; but, like those 
among men who live by sharping and robbing, 
he is generally poor and often very lousy. Be- 
sides, he is a rank coward; the little kingbird, 
not bigger than a sparrow, attacks him boldly 
and drives him out of the district. He is there- 
fore by no means a proper emblem for the 
brave and honest Cincinnati of America, who 
have driven all the 'kingbirds' from our coun- 
try." 

It is gratifying to know that the breach be- 



178 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

tween Franklin and his old friend Strahan, 
whose intimacy had been broken up through 
their opposing interests during the War, was 
entirely healed in their later life. Franklin's 
great heart held abundant room for all his 
many friends, to whom he was as loyal as he 
was affectionate. Nor was he deficient in gen- 
erosity to his enemies, ignoring their attacks 
silently. 

Replying to a letter from his sister that the 
Boston papers had said much in his honor, he 
wrote: *'I am obliged to them. On the other 
hand, some of our papers here are endeavoring 
to disgrace me. I take no notice. My friends 
defend me. I have long been accustomed to 
receive more blame, as well as more praise, 
than I have deserved. It is the lot of every 
public man, and I leave one account to balance 
the other." 

In 1788 Franklin was obliged, because of 
his enfeebled physique, to give up his seat in 
the Pennsylvania Council. His health grad- 
ually failed, though his mind and his spirits 
remained as vigorous and clear as ever. His 
letters are always full of charming humor. 
To Madame Lavoisier, who had sent him a 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 179 

portrait of himself which she had drawn, he 
wrote, after an apology for delay caused by; 
a more than usually severe attack of gout: 

"Our English enemies, when they were in 
possession of this city and my house, made a 
prisoner of my portrait, and carried it off 
with them, leaving that of its companion, my 
wife, by itself, a kind of widow. You have 
replaced the husband, and the lady seems to 
smile as well pleased." 

FrankUn's last great public interest was the 
abolition of the slave trade. In this cause he 
showed himself as unselfishly diUgent as in all 
his other work. He became President of the 
"Society for the Abolition of Slavery," and 
drew up the memorial of that Society, signed 
by him as President, that was presented to 
Congress and which begged that body to "de- 
vise means for removing this inconsistency 
from the character of the American people; 
that you will promote mercy and justice 
toward this distressed race; and that you will 
step to the very verge of the power vested in 
you for discouraging every species of traffic 
in the persons of our fellow-men." 

The last two years of Franklin's life were 



180 FAMOUS AMERICANS 

visited with more and more frequent periods 
of very intense pain. Writing to Wash- 
ington, in 1789, late in the year before his 
death, he said: 

"My malady renders my sitting up to write 
rather painful to me. For my own personal 
ease, I should have died two years ago; but, 
though those years have been spent in excru- 
ciating pain, I am pleased that I have lived 
them, since they have brought me to see our 
present situation." 

As one by one his old friends passed 
away, Franklin began to anticipate, almost 
with pleasure, his own end. These partings 
he spoke of as Nature's way of lessening the 
ties that bind to hfe, and said he had lived so 
long and so full a life, that he was beginning 
to have more curiosity to investigate the next, 
than wish to stay on in this he knew so well. 

In April, 1790, he began to suffer intense 
pain in the chest, which caused a great dif- 
ficulty in breathing, and on the 17th day of 
that month he passed away. 

A full and busy hfe! Runaway appren- 
tice, printer, scientist, patriot, public servant, 
diplomat, humanitarian, — ^history has given to 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 181 

Franklin a place among the greatest men of 
his time. 

When but twenty-three he composed an 
epitaph, which in simple words, stated his 
philosophy of life : 

The Body 
of 

BENJAMIX FRANKLIN 

Printer 

(Like the cover of an old book 

its contents torn out 

And stript of its lettering and gilding) 

Lies here, food for worms, 

But the work shall not be lost 

For it will (as he believed) appear once more 

In a new and more elegant edition 

Revised and corrected 

by 

The Author. 



